Transfer of suit from Civil Court.

O.S. No. 135 of 1956 on the file of the District Munsif’s Court., Tiruvarur, is a suit in which the plaintiff prays for a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from interfering with his possession and enjoyment of the suit lands, of an extent of 3 acres, 65 cents, in the village of Mudikondan, Nannilam Taluk, Tanjore District. In the fasli year 1955-1956 the plaintiff let the lands to the defendant for cultivation on waram basis for that year. After the harvest of the lands in 1956 according to the plaintiff he took possession of the lands in February, 1956, intending to cultivate the lands himself personally in future. Alleging that the defendant interfered with his possession and enjoyment of the suit lands, after having voluntarily surrendered the lands, the plaintiff instituted the suit referred to above for a permanent injunction. The plainiff filed I.A. No. 559 of 1956 for a temporary injunction restraining the defendant from interfering with his possession of the suit lands during the pendency of the suit. The defendant contested the application but the learned District Munsif of Tiruvarur by his order,dated 5th July, 1956, granted the temporary injunction as prayed for by the plaintiff. At the time when the suit was instituted and the order for temporary injunction was passed the relationship of landlord and tenant in respect of agricultural lands in the district of Tanjore was governed by the Tanjore Tenants and Pannayals Protection Act, (Madras Act XIV of 1952). That Act was not a State-wide legislation but was confined in operation only to the district of Tanjore though the State had the power to extend it to other territories as well. The Madras Cultivating Tenants’ Protection Act (XXV of 1955), received the assent of the President on 24th September, 1955, and was published in the Fort St. George Gazette on 27th September, 1955. But it. applied to areas not covered by the Tanjore Tenants and Pannayals Protection Act. Then came Madras Act XIV of 1956 which amended the Madras Act XXV of 1955 extending the operation of Madras Act XXV of 1955 to the territories previously covered by Madras Act XIV of 1952. This Amending Act received the assent of the President on 29th September, 1956 and was published in the Fort St. George Gazette on 1st October, 1956.

The defendant in O.S. No. 135 of 1956, on the file of the District Munsif’s Court Tiruvarur, filed I.A. No. 1162 of 1956, invoking the aid of section 6-A of Madras Act XXV of 1955 and prayed for transfer of the suit to the file of the Revenue Divisional Officer, Nagapattinam. He claimed that he was a cultivating tenant entitled to the benefits of Madras Act XXV of 1955 and that therefore the transfer of the suit to the file of the Revenue Divisional Officer, Nagapattinam, should be ordered.

The plaintiff resisted this application but the learned District Munsif ordered the transfer and hence this Civil Revision Petition has been preferred by the plaintiff challenging the correctness of the said order.

The Civil Revision Petition was heard in the first instance by Panchapakesa Ayyar, J., who directed the matter to be posted before a Division Bench observing thus:

“An important question of law affecting thousands of landlords and ryots in Tanjore district was involved.”

The learned District Munsif of Tiruvarur was of the opinion that though Madras Act XXV of 1955 came into operation in the Tanjore district where the suit lands are situated only on 29th September, 1956, by reason of the Amending Act, XIV of 1956, the status of the defendant, whether he is a cultivating tenant or not, had to be determined as if the Act XXV of 1955 governed the relationship of the parties even prior to the coming into force of the Amending Act. The defendant having been restrained by an order of temporary injunction passed on 5th July, 1956, from interfering with the possession and enjoyment of the suit lands by the plaintiff was certainly out of possession at least from t