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2013 Supreme(Mad) 1057

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
T. Raja, J.
S.R. Kaliappan
Versus
District Revenue Officer, Coimbatore and Others
W.P. No. 16966 of 2005
Decided On : 22 February 2013

ADVOCATES APPEARED:
S. Parthasarathy, Senior Counsel, for Petitioner N. Srinivasan, Additional Government Pleader, N. Manokaran, for Respondents

Headnote:(a). Tamil Nadu Agricultural Lands (Record of Tenancy Rights) Act, 1969, Section 4 –Petitioner unable to prove the presence of a valid lease agreement between him and the owner of the property- petitioner challenges the impugned order by contending that he is a cultivating tenant but no such order from the revenue Officer is presented before the court- it is held that till the time petitioner is able to prove that he is a tenant, he is not entitled to any of the benefits enshrined in the Act.

       (b). Tamil Nadu Agricultural Lands (Record of Tenancy Rights) Act, 1969, Section 7 – scope of the revisional power and jurisdiction of the court.

ORDER

1. The present writ petition has been filed in the year 2005, challenging the impugned order passed by the revisional authority/first respondent.

2. Mr. S. Parathasarathy, learned senior counsel for the petitioner while challenging the impugned order, has briefly submitted that when the petitioner entered into an oral lease agreement with one R.Murugan, the original land owner as a cultivating tenant in respect of the land comprised in Survey No. 121/3 at Pooluvampatti village, Coimbatore (South) in the year 1977, measuring to an extent of 0.87 cents agreed to pay a sum of Rs. 300/- p.m as rent along with an advance amount of Rs. 3,000/-. On the basis of the said oral lease agreement, the petitioner became a cultivating tenant and his name was also recorded in the revenue records and Adangal extracts for the Fasli years 1388 to 1390 describing him as cultivating tenant. There is a well in the above said property together with 5 H.P. Electric motor, in which, the original land owner Murugan had 1/4 share, for which, the petitioner, as a cultivating tenant paid the electricity consumption charges from the date of oral lease agreement.

3. When the matter stood as above, the original land owner Murugan sold away the property to the fourth respondent A.Sundararaj and one Gopalsamy, who is the husband of the fifth respondent Shanthadevi and the father of the respondents 6 to 8. viz., Vanathi Ganga, Arathi Ganga and Sindhu Ganga. After purchasing the above said property from the original land owner Murugan, the subsequent purchasers have started to interfere with the possession and enjoyment of the property. Therefore, the petitioner filed a suit in O.S. No. 1070 of 1980 on the file of the District Munsif, Coimbatore seeking bare injunction not to interfere with the possession and enjoyment of the petitioner from the said land. The said suit was decreed on the basis of the Adangal extracts for the Fasli years 1388 to 1390, which stand in the name of the petitioner, have proved that the petitioner is a cultivating tenant. Pending the above suit, when the petitioner filed an application before the third respondent under Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Lands Record of Tenancy Rights Act, 1969 seeking an order to hold him as cultivating tenant, the third respondent/Tahsildar (Record Officer), Coimbatore dismissed the application filed by the petitioner. Aggrieved by the same, an appeal was filed before the second respondent/Special Deputy Collector, Revenue Court, Trichy, under Section 6 of the Act in A.P. No. 12 of 2002 (CBE). The second respondent/Special Deputy Collector, Revenue Court, Trichy, taking into account two vital documents viz., the Adangal extracts for the Fasli years 1388 to 1390 filed by the petitioner and the oral evidence adduced by the petitioner that he is a cultivating tenant, has come to the conclusion that the petitioner was in possession of the land as cultivating tenant as provided under Section 2(8)(i)(b)(ii)(a)(i)(ii), and thereby allowed the appeal on 17.10.2003 by setting aside the order passed by the third respondent/Tahsildar (Record Officer), Coimbatore. Aggrieved by the said order passed by the second respondent/Special Deputy Collector, Revenue Court, Trichy, the fourth respondent Sundararaj and Gopalsamy have filed a revision before the first respondent/District Revenue Officer, Coimbatore under Section 7 of the Act. The first respondent/District Revenue Officer, Coimbatore without referring to the documentary evidence namely, Adangal extracts for the Fasli years 1388 to 1390, which were produced by the petitioner, has erroneously allowed the revision by an order dated 9.4.2005 stating that there was no written agreement of tenancy entered into between the petitioner and the original land owner and the petitioner and also for another reason that the petitioner has not proved that he had contributed his labour physically as a cultivating tenant in respect of the land in question, by exercisi
















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