The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation of the term 'agricultural lands' in the context of the SRFAESI Act, 2002, and the application of principles of interpretation in fiscal statutes to determine the nature of the lands given as collateral security.

Prabha Sridevan, J.

1. The only question that arises in these writ petitions is a legal question as to the construction of the words "agricultural lands" found in Section 31(f) of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (SRFAESI), 2002.

2. According to the Petitioners, the lands, which were given as collateral security to the Respondents, are cardamom plantations and the impugned notice issued by the Respondent No. 1 clearly refers to the word "cardamom plantation", and therefore, without any further investigation, it would be logical to conclude that they are agricultural lands, and hence, they are immune from attachment.

3. The learned Counsel appearing for the Respondents, however, referred to the definition of the word in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural income tax Act and the definition of the words "paddy land" in Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963 and also the Wet Land (Act 28 of 2008) of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and also the definition of land in Section 2(nnn) of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural income tax Act and referred to Controller of Estate Duty, Kerala Vs. V. Venugopala Varma Rajah, (1976) 4 SCC 3, wherein the Supreme Court held that the of the Kerala High Court that "all forest lands in this State are agricultural lands in the sense that they can be prudently and profitably exploited for agricultural purposes" is too wide. Therefore, according to the Respondents, without evidence to show that such land had been cleared and prepared or earmarked for agricultural purposes, it must be treated as prima facie non-agricultural land. The learned Counsel for the Respondents has also filed written submissions.

4. The learned Counsel for the Petitioner, on the other hand, produced study report made by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation to describe the activities that are done for cardamom cultivation to show that the lands, where the cardamom is cultivated, would be agricultural lands. He also relied on the Judgments of the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Wealth Tax, Andhra Pradesh Vs. Officer-in-charge (Court of Wards), Paigah, (1976) 3 SCC 864 and also in Commissioner of Income Tax, West Bengal, Calcutta Vs. Raja Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy, AIR 1957 SC 768.

5. We find from the literature relating to the cardamom cultivation that there are planting periods and there are harvesting periods depending on the time when they are planted. The cardamom cultivation does not comprise merely raising the products of the land in the narrower sense of the term like tilling of the land, sowing of the seeds, planting and irrigation and similar work done on the land, but also includes the subsequent operations set out. The above operations, which are basic as well as the subsequent activities, form one integrated activity of the agriculturist. The above activities would indicate that they are similar to what is normally described as agricultural activities, L. T. Commr. v. Benox Kumar (supra), which arose out of the income tax Act, the Supreme Court held that the terms "agriculture" and "agricultural lands" used in the definition of agricultural income in Section (2)(1) not having been defined in the income tax Act, the Court must necessarily fall back upon the general sense in which they have been understood in common parlance. The Supreme Court further observed that agriculture in its root sense means "ager a field" and "cultura-cultivation", cultivation of field which of course implies expenditure of human skill and labour upon land. The Supreme Court referred to various decisions including the English decisions and some of the observations are relevant for this case:

The expression "agricultural land" means any land used as parable, meadow, or pasture ground only, cottage gardens exceeding one-quarter of an acre, market gardens, nursery grounds, orchards, or allotments, but does not include land occupied together with a house as a park, gardens other than as aforesaid