The central legal point established in the judgment is that the provisions of the Malabar Compensation for Tenants Improvements Act, particularly Section 19, Section 3, and Section 5, govern the entitlement to compensation for improvements and the rights of the sub-tenants.

Alfred Henry Lionel Leach, C.J.

1. The first and second respondents filed a suit in the Court of the District Munsif of Taliparamba for the redemption of a kanom on the payment of the kanom amount and the value of the improvements. The first respondent is the melcharthdar (lessee from the jenmi with power to redeem the kanom) and the second respondent is the jenmi who granted a kanom to the karnavan of the 11th respondents tarwad on the 29th June, 1884. On 5th June, 1892, the kanomdar created a sub-kanom in favour of three persons who are not parties to the suit. In the original kanom deed, it was stipulated that the kanomdar should only be called upon to pay for improvements to the property at the rates stipulated therein. The sub-tenants of the sub-kanomdar were made parties to the suit and contended that they were entitled before ejectment to compensation on the basis of the provisions of the Malabar Compensation for Tenants Improvements Act, 1900. The plaintiff-respondents maintained that the sub-tenants were only entitled to compensation at the lower rates mentioned in the kanom deed of 29th June, 1884. The District Munsif granted a decree for redemption on payment of the kanom amount, Rs. 2,500, and the value of the improvements calculated under the provisions of the Act. The plaintiff-respondents challenged the decision of the District Munsif that the Act applied in an appeal to the Subordinate Judge of Tellicherry. The Subordinate Judge allowed the appeal, holding that the deed and not the Act governed the position. His decision meant a reduction of Rs. 8,145-9-0 in the amount of compensation payable to the tenant defendants. Thirteen of them have filed this present second appeal.

2. The District Munsif held that the sub-tenant defendants had no notice of the terms of the kanom deed of the 29th June, 1884 and that when they entered into possession of their lands they believed bona fide that they would be paid the value of improvements under the Malabar Compensation for Tenants Improvements Act when their sub-tenancies terminated. The Subordinate Judge did not question this finding of the District Munsif, but held that it should be presumed that all the subtenants had notice of the terms of the kanom deed. He also held that the stipulation that the jenmi should only pay compensation at the rates mentioned in the deed amounted to a covenant which ran with the land.

3. Section 19 of the Act provides that,

Nothing in any contract made after the first day of January, 1886, shall take away or limit the right of a tenant to make improvements and to claim compensation for them in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

4. There was a stipulation in the sub-kanom deed of 5th June, 1892, that improvements should be paid for at the same rates as those mentioned in the earlier deed. But the sub-kanom deed falls within the mischief of Section 19 and unless the provisions of the earlier deed with regard to payment of compensation amounts to a covenant running with land of which the subtenants had notice, the decision of the Subordinate Judge must be set aside and the judgment of the District Munsif restored. Section 3 of the Act defines the word tenant with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, as including,

A person who as lessee, sub-lessee, mortgagee or sub-mortgagee or in good faith believing himself to be lessee, sub-lessee, mortgagee or sub-mortgagee of land is in possession thereof, or who, with the bona fide intention of attorning and paying the customary rent to the person entitled to cultivate or let waste land, but without the permission of such person, brings such land under cultivation and is in occupation thereof as cultivator.

5. The sub-tenants, therefore, clearly come within the definition of "tenants". Section 5 says:

(1) Every tenant shall on ejectment be entitled to compensation for improvements which have been made by him, his predecessor in interest, or by any person not in occupation at the t