JUDGMENT

Ramachandran Nair, J.

Appeal is filed by the Panchayat challenging the judgment of the learned single Judge who held that common areas adjoining the Padashekaram where prawn cultivation is going on belong to the Minor Irrigation Department of the Government and not to the Panchayat. The dispute pertains to auctioning of fishing rights by the Panchayat every year covering the common areas like the canals, the backwaters adjoining the paddy field owned by different land owners and the sharing of licence fee annually between the Panchayat and the land owners on 30:70 basis. The matter came before this Court once before wherein under Ext.P2 judgment in two cases dated 7.4.2006, the learned single Judge directed sharing of licence fee in the same ratio, that is 30:70 for the year in dispute in that year. The case of the first respondent is that the common areas are only 15 acres as against 200 acres of the Padashekaram held by private persons. However, the case of the appellant is that access for the fish, namely prawns from the backwaters to paddy field is through the common areas and the collection of fish is also by installing sluice in the canals and common areas owned eithe