Provisions of Section 8(5) repugnant to Article 14 and 15 of Constitution.

Panchapakesa Ayyar, J.-These are 14 connected Second Appeals, filed by the tenants against the judgment and decrees of the Subordinate judge, Tenali, dismissing their appeals from the judgments and decrees of the District Munsif, Tenali,, in the suits for ejectment and arrears of rents and for mesne profits, filed by the landholders against them, in respect of the lands in Vaddimukkala Agraharam. The learned District Munsif had decreed the suits for ejectment, after overruling all the contentions raised by these appellants’. But he had held some discharges to be true. The learned Subordinate Judge, in appeal, had overruled all their contentions and confirmed the judgments and decrees of the lower Court, both as regards ejectment and as regards arrears of rent and mesne profits. The memoranda of cross-objections related to the few points held by the Courts below in favour of the appellants.

The facts were briefly these: The suit lands were covered by a judgment and decree obtained by the plaintiffs-landholders in O.S. No. 3 of 1919 on the file of the Subordinate Judge’s Court, Guntur, Exhibits A-1 and A-2, except as regards two items, with which we are not concerned in these appeals but only in the memorandum of cross-objections in S.A. No. 299 of 1950.

The landholders thereafter let out those lands to these appellants on lease for a period of five years in the year 1941. After the expiry of that lease, they granted another lease to the appellants for one year. That lease expired in March, 1947. After March, 1947, the appellants were holding over without any lease in their favour and did not quit the lands in spite of notices to quit. Hence the suits were filed by the landholders for ejectment and arrears of rent, and for future mesne profits.

The appellants had contended that the suit lands were ryoti lands in an estate even before the 1936 Amendment of the Madras Estates Land Act. That contention was negatived by both the Courts below. They had contended further that these suit lands became ryoti lands in an estate at least by virtue of the 1936 Amendment to the Madras Estates Land Act. Both the Courts below held that that was so, but upheld the contention-of the landholders that by virtue of section 8(5) of the Madras Estates Land Act, as the landholders had obtained, in respect of these lands, a final decree of a competent civil Court, under Exhibits A-1 and A-2, establishing that the tenants had no occupancy rights in these lands, and as none of these appellants had acquired any occupancy rights in such lands independently of the Act before the commencement of the Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment Act), 1936, the landholders could, notwithstanding anything contained in the Act, for a period of 12 years from the commencement of the Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment Act) 1936, admit any person to the possession of such lands on such terms as might be agreed upon between them, and that the appellants would not come under the category of such persons. Relying on the judgment of Horwill, J., in Mummina Demudu v. Datla Papayyaraju Garu1, they held that section 8(5) of the Madras Estates Land Act, as amended by Act XVIII of 1936, was intended to be an exception to the general rule enunciated in section (6)(1) of the Act, read with. Explanation 2, and would defer for a period of 12 years from the commencement of the Act the application of section 6 under the circumstances stated therein. The third Amendment came into operation admittedly on 31st October, 1956, and the 12 years’ period would, therefore, expire only on 31st October, 1948, within which period these suits had been brought. So, both the Courts below held that the fact that the appellants were in possession of these lands, which would have been otherwise ryoti ands, would not give them any occupancy rights as ryoti tenants. Both the Courts below also held against the appellants’ contention that the suits in ejectment would lie only in the revenue Courts, and not in t

Click Here to Read the rest of this document