1. These appeals have been referred to a Full Bench because of a common question arising in them viz , whether owelty is a debt within the purview of the Kerala Agriculturists' Debt Relief Act, 1958.

2. "Owelty" is defined in Black's "Law Dictionary" (2nd Edn., page 865) thus: Owelty. Equality. This word is used in law in several compound phrases, as follows:

1. Owelty of partition is a sum of money paid by one of two coparceners or co-tenants to the other, when a partition has been effected between them, but the land not being susceptible of division into exactly equal shares, such payment is required to make the portions respectively assigned to them of equal value.

2. (Owelty of services)

3. Owelty of exchange is a sum of money given, when two persons have exchanged lands, by the owner of the less valuable estate to the owner of the more valuable, to equalize the exchange."

Ballentine's "Law Dictionary" (1948 Edn., page 923) defines:

"Owelty of partition. A sum paid or secured, in the case of partition in unequal proportions, by him who has received the larger portion to him who has the less, for the purpose of equalizing the portions; it is pecuniary compensation decreed