Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— (1) "agricultural labourer" means a person whose principal means of livelihood is the income he gets as wages, in connection with the agricultural operations he performs; (2) "agricultural year" means the year commencing with the 1st April in any year and ending with the 31st March of the year next succeeding, except in the case of kole nilams in which case it shall be the year commencing with the 15th June in any year and ending with the 14th June of the year next succeeding: Provided that the District Collector may, with respect to any crop, area or category of land within his district, by notification in the Gazette, specify the year between such other dates as he may deem fit as an agricultural year; (3) "ceiling area" means the extent of land specified in section 82 as the ceiling area; (4) "Cochin" means the area comprising— (i) the portion of the State of Kerala which before the first day of July, 1949, formed the State of Cochin, excluding the enclaves absorbed in the Malabar district under the Provinces and States (Absorption of Enclaves) Order, 1950; and (ii) the enclaves which formed part of the Malabar district absorbed in the State of Travancore-Cochin under the said Order; (5) "commercial site" means any land (not being a kudiyiruppu or a kudikidappu) which is used principally for the purposes of any trade, commerce, industry, manufacture or business; (6) "court" means, where a particular court is not specifically mentioned, the court having jurisdiction under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to entertain a suit for the possession of the holding or part thereof to which any legal proceeding under this Act relates; (7) "cultivate" with its grammatical variations means cultivate either solely by one's own labour or with the help of the members of his family or hired labourers or both, or personally direct or supervise cultivation by such members or hired labourers or both, provided that such members or hired labourers have not agreed to pay or to take any fixed proportion of the produce of the land they cultivate as compensation for being allowed to cultivate it or as remuneration for cultivating it. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, "members of family" shall mean,— (a) in the case of lands held by a joint family, members of such family; and (b) in any other case, wife or husband, as the case may be, and the lineal descendants; (8) "cultivating tenant" means a tenant who is in actual possession of, and is entitled to cultivate, the land comprised in his holding; (9) "customary dues" means anything, other than rent, michavaram or renewal fees,— (i) payable in cash or in kind by a tenant to his landlord; or (ii) allowed to be taken by the landlord from the holding, periodically or on the happening of any event or on the occasion of any festival, and includes onakazhcha, utsavakoppu, perunnalkazhcha and aradiantharam; (10) "double-crop nilam" means nilam on which more than one crop of paddy is ordinarily raised in an agricultural year; (11) "dry land" means land which is not nilam, garden, palliyal land or plantation; (12) "eviction" means the recovery of possession of land from a tenant or the recovery of a kudikidappu from the occupation of the kudikidappukaran; (13) "fair rent" means the rent payable by a cultivating tenant under section 27 or section 33; (14) "family" means husband, wife and their unmarried minor children or such of them as exist; (15) "garden" means land used principally for growing coconut trees, arecanut trees or pepper vines, or any two or more of the same; (16) "gross produce", in the case of a nilam, means the normal produce of that nilam less the cost of harvesting and, in the case of a garden or dry land, means the normal produce of that garden or dry land: Provided that in determining the gross produce in the case of any double crop nilam, account shall be taken as though only a single paddy crop, which shall be the principal crop, has been raised on the land if it had been converted from single crop into double crop nilam at the tenant's expense, and as though two paddy crops have been raised on the land in other cases. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, "normal produce" in respect of any land means the produce which would be raised if the rainfall and the seasons were of a normal character; (17) "holding" means a parcel or parcels of land held under a single demise by a tenant from a landlord and shall include any portion of a holding as above defined which the landlord and the tenant have agreed, or are bound under section 48 or otherwise, to treat as a separate holding; (18) the term "improvement" shall have the meaning assigned to it under the Kerala Compensation for Tenants Improvements Act, 1958; (19) "intermediary" means any person who, not being a landowner or mortgagee, has an interest in the land and is entitled, by reason of such interest, to possession thereof, but has transferred such possession to any other person otherwise than by way of mortgage; (20) "joint family" means a Hindu undivided family, a Marumakkathayam tarwad or tavazhi, an Aliasanthana kutumba or kavaru or a Nambudiri Illam; (21) "kaipad system of cultivation" means the system of cultivation, by whatever name called, under which paddy is cultivated on saline land by raising small mounds of earth and planting seedlings thereon; (22) "kanam" means the transfer for consideration, in money or in kind or in both, by a landlord of an interest in specific immovable property to another person for the latter's enjoyment, whether described in the document evidencing the transaction as kanam or kanapattam, the incidents of which transfer include— (a) a right in the transferee to hold the said property liable for the consideration paid by him or due to him; (b) the liability of the transferor to pay to the transferee interest on such consideration unless otherwise agreed to by the parties; and (c) payment of michavaram or customary dues, or renewal on the expiry of any specified period, and, in areas in the State other than Malabar, includes such transfer of interest in specific immovable property which is described in the document evidencing the transaction as otti, karipanayam, panayam, nerpanayam or by any other name and which has the incidents specified in sub-clauses (a) and (b) above and also the following incidents:— (i) renewal on the expiry of any specified period; and (ii) payment of customary dues: Provided that kanapattam or any other demise governed by the Travancore Jenmi and Kudiyan Act of 1071 or the Kanam Tenancy Act, 1955, shall not be deemed to be a kanam. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, where there has been no stipulation in the document evidencing the transaction for renewal on the expiry of any specified period, but there has been a renewal or payment of renewal fees, it shall be deemed that there had been a provision for such renewal in the document; (23) "kanam-kuzhikanam" means and includes a transfer by a landlord to another person of garden lands or of other lands or of both, with the fruit bearing trees, if any, standing thereon at the time of the transfer, for the enjoyment of those trees and for the purpose of planting such fruit-bearing trees thereon, the incidents of which transfer include— (a) a right in the transferee to hold the said lands liable for the consideration paid by him or due to him, which consideration is called 'kanartham'; and (b) the liability of the transferor to pay to the transferee interest on the kanartham unless otherwise agreed to by the parties: Provided that a usufructuary mortgage as defined in the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (Central Act 4 of 1882), shall not be deemed to be a kanam-kuzhikanam; (24) "kole nilam" means land in the bed of any kayal, or lake, or any water-logged land in areas adjoining or lying within the vicinity of any kayal, lake or river, on which paddy is cultivated by raising bunds on one or more sides and draining the water away by mechanical or other means, and includes— (i) kole or punjakole nilam in the districts of Palghat and Trichur; and (ii) water-logged land in the taluks of Hosdrug and Kasaragod commonly known as "Avi" land, on which paddy is cultivated by raising bunds on one or more sides and draining the water away by baling; (25) "kudikidappukaran" means a person who has neither a homestead nor any land, either as owner or as tenant in possession, on which he could erect a homestead and (i) who has been permitted with or without an obligation to pay rent by a person in lawful possession of any land to have the use and occupation of a portion of such land for the purpose of erecting a homestead; or (ii) who has been permitted by a person in lawful possession of any land to occupy, with or without an obligation to pay rent, a hut belonging to such person and situate in the said land; (22) "kanam" means the transfer for consideration in money or in kind or in both by a landlord of any interest in land to another for the enjoyment of those lands and for the purpose of such enjoyment puts the transferee in possession of the lands, with the following incidents:— (a) an interest in the land created in the transferee and the right of the transferee to hold the land liable for the consideration paid by him or due to him, which consideration is called 'kanartham'; (b) the liability of the transferor to pay to the transferee interest on the kanartham; (c) the payment of 'michavaram' by the tenant to the landlord; and (d) a right in the transferee to occupy the land for a period of twelve years or any other longer or shorter period which may be specified in the document evidencing the transfer, and includes usufructuary mortgage as defined in the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, otti, karipanayam, kanam-otti, nerpanayam or by any other name and which has the incidents specified in sub-clauses (a) and (b) above and also the following incidents:— (i) renewal on the expiry of any specified period; and (ii) payment of customary dues: Provided that kanapattam or any other demise governed by the Travancore Jenmi and Kudiyan Act of 1071 or the Kanam Tenancy Act, 1955, shall not be deemed to be a kanam. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, where there has been no stipulation in the document evidencing the transaction for renewal on the expiry of any specified period, but there has been a renewal or payment of renewal fees, it shall be deemed that there had been a provision for such renewal in the document; (23) "kanam-kuzhikanam" means and includes a transfer by a landlord to another person of garden lands or of other lands or of both, with the fruit bearing trees, if any, standing thereon at the time of the transfer, for the enjoyment of those trees and for the purpose of planting such fruit-bearing trees thereon, the incidents of which transfer include— (a) a right in the transferee to hold the said lands liable for the consideration paid by him or due to him, which consideration is called 'kanartham'; and (b) the liability of the transferor to pay to the transferee interest on the kanartham unless otherwise agreed to by the parties: Provided that a usufructuary mortgage as defined in the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (Central Act 4 of 1882), shall not be deemed to be a kanam-kuzhikanam; (24) "kole nilam" means land in the bed of any kayal, or lake, or any water-logged land in areas adjoining or lying within the vicinity of any kayal, lake or river, on which paddy is cultivated by raising bunds on one or more sides and draining the water away by mechanical or other means, and includes— (i) kole or punjakole nilam in the districts of Palghat and Trichur; and (ii) water-logged land in the taluks of Hosdrug and Kasaragod commonly known as "Avi" land, on which paddy is cultivated by raising bunds on one or more sides and draining the water away by baling; (25) "kudikidappukaran" means a person who has neither a homestead nor any land, either as owner or as tenant in possession, on which he could erect a homestead and (i) who has been permitted with or without an obligation to pay rent by a person in lawful possession of any land to have the use and occupation of a portion of such land for the purpose of erecting a homestead; or (ii) who has been permitted by a person in lawful possession of any land to occupy, with or without an obligation to pay rent, a hut belonging to such person and situate in the said land, but otherwise has no interest in the land; and "kudikidappu" means the land and the homestead or the hut so permitted to be erected or occupied together with the easements attached thereto: Provided that a person shall not be deemed to be a kudikidappukaran if the aforesaid permission was granted after the 11th day of April, 1957, by a mortgagee in possession or by a tenant from whom the land in which the kudikidappu is situate is liable to be resumed: Provided further that a person shall not be deemed to be a kudikidappukaran if the aforesaid permission was granted in respect of any hut not belonging to him and situate— (a) in a plantation; or (b) in any area of land which is appurtenant to a mill, factory or workshop, and in connection with the employment of such person in the plantation, mill, factory or workshop, unless he was, immediately before the commencement of this Act, entitled to the rights of a kudikidappukaran or the holder of a protected ulkudi or kudikidappu under any law then in force. Explanation I.—For the purposes of this clause, 'hut' means any dwelling house which was constructed at a cost not exceeding four hundred rupees, or could have, at the time of construction, yielded a monthly rent not exceeding four rupees. Explanation II.—Any person who was in occupation of a kudikidappu on the 11th day of April, 1957, and who continued to be in such occupation at the commencement of this Act, shall be deemed to be in occupation of such kudikidappu with permission as required under this clause. Explanation III.—Where any kudikidappukaran secures any mortgage with possession over the land in which the kudikidappu is situate, his kudikidappu right shall revive on the redemption of the mortgage, provided that he has at the time of the redemption neither a homestead nor any land, either as owner or as tenant in possession, on which he could erect a homestead; (26) "kudiyiruppu" means a holding or part of a holding consisting of the site of any residential building, the site or sites of other buildings appurtenant thereto, such other lands as are necessary for the convenient enjoyment of such residential building and easements attached thereto, but does not include a kudikidappu; (27) "Kuttanad area" means the area covered by the villages specified in Schedule I; (28) "kuzhikanam" means and includes a transfer by a landlord to another person of garden lands or of other lands or of both, with the fruit-bearing trees, if any, standing thereon at the time of the transfer, for the enjoyment of those trees and for the purpose of planting such fruit-bearing trees thereon, but shall not include a usufructuary mortgage as defined in the Transfer of Property Act, 1882; (29) "landlord" means a person under whom a tenant holds and to whom he is liable to pay rent, and includes a landowner; (30) "landowner" means the owner of the land comprised in a holding and includes— (i) a landholder holding Sree Pandaravaka lands on pattam, otti, jenmam, kudijenmam, danam or any other tenure; and (ii) a land holder holding Sreepadam lands on Sreepadam pattam or other favourable tenure; (31) "Land Board" means the Land Board constituted under section 100; (32) "Land Tribunal" means a Land Tribunal constituted under section 99; (33) "licensee" means any person who is in occupation of any nilam belonging to another and who, under any local custom or usage or under an agreement, cultivates that nilam with paddy for a remuneration and with the risk of cultivation, but does not include a person who cultivates the nilam of another merely as an agent or servant; (34) "Malabar" means the Malabar district referred to in sub-section (2) of section 5 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956; (35) "member of the Armed Forces" means a person in the service of the Air Force, Army or Navy of the Union of India; (36) "michavaram" means whatever is agreed by a kanamdar to be paid periodically as residual rent, in money or in kind or in both to, or on behalf of, the landlord, but does not include customary dues; (37) "net income" means income derived from any property after deducting therefrom the cultivation expenses or charges for maintaining fruit trees, timber trees or other useful trees and plants, and taxes and cesses due to the Government or any local authority; (38) "nilam" means land adapted for the cultivation of paddy; (39) "odacharthu" means an agreement for cutting bamboos in Malabar; (40) "owner" means a person entitled to the absolute proprietorship of land and includes— (a) a trustee in respect thereof; (b) a pattadar of ryotwari land; (c) a kudiyan as defined in the Travancore Jenmi and Kudiyan Act of 1071 and a kanam tenant as defined in the Kanam Tenancy Act, 1955, but does not include a jenmi as defined in the said Acts; (41) "palliyalland" means land which is used ordinarily for raising seedlings of paddy and includes land so used and known as pallimanayal, myal, potta, njal, njattadi or banabettu; (42) "pay" with its grammatical variations includes deliver; (43) "person" shall include a company, family, joint family, association or other body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, and any institution capable of holding property; (44) "plantation" means any land used by a person principally for the cultivation of tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom or cinnamon (hereinafter in this clause referred to as 'plantation crops') and includes— (a) land used by the said person for any purpose ancillary to the cultivation of plantation crops or for the preparation of the same for the market; (b) land contiguous to, or in the vicinity of, or within the boundaries of, the area cultivated with plantation crops, not exceeding twenty per cent of the area so cultivated and reserved by the said person and fit for the expansion of such cultivation; (c) agricultural lands interspersed within the boundaries of the area cultivated by the said person with plantation crops, not exceeding such extent as may be determined by the Land Board as necessary for the protection and efficient management of such cultivation. Explanation.—Lands used for the construction of office buildings, godowns, factories, quarters for workmen, hospitals, schools and play grounds shall be deemed to be lands used for the purposes of sub-clause (a); (45) "possession" in relation to land includes occupation of land by a person deemed to be a tenant under section 4, section 5, section 6, section 7, section 8, section 9 or section 10; (46) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (47) "private forests" means forests to which the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 (Act XXVII of 1949), applies, excluding— (i) areas which are waste and are not enclaves within wooded areas; (ii) areas which are gardens or nilams; (iii) areas which are planted with tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom or cinnamon; and (iv) other areas which are cultivated with pepper, arecanut, cocoanut, cashew or other fruit-bearing trees or are cultivated with any other agricultural crop; (48) (i) "punam or kumri cultivation" means fugitive or intermittent cultivation of paddy on dry lands in Malabar; (ii) "punam or kumri cultivator" means a person who has raised crops by punam or kumri cultivation in any year between 1953 and 1959 and, where there are successive cultivators in respect of the same land, the cultivator who raised crops last by such cultivation during the said period; (49) "rent" means whatever is lawfully payable in money or in kind or in both by a person permitted to have the use and occupation of any land to the person so permitting, and includes michavaram, but does not include customary dues; (50) "resumption" means the recovery of possession of land from a tenant; (44) "plantation" means any land used by a person principally for the cultivation of tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom or cinnamon (hereinafter in this clause referred to as 'plantation crops') and includes-(a) land used by the said person for any purpose ancillary to the cultivation of plantation crops or for the preparation of the same for the market; (b) land contiguous to, or in the vicinity of, or within the boundaries of, the area cultivated with plantation crops, not exceeding twenty per cent of the area so cultivated and reserved by the said person and fit for the expansion of such cultivation; (c) agricultural lands interspersed within the boundaries of the area cultivated by the said person with plantation crops, not exceeding such extent as may be determined by the Land Board as necessary for the protection and efficient management of such cultivation. Explanation.-Lands used for the construction of office buildings, godowns, factories, quarters for workmen, hospitals, schools and play grounds shall be deemed to be lands used for the purposes of sub-clause (a); (45) "possession" in relation to land includes occupation of land by a person deemed to be a tenant under section 4, section 5, section 6, section 7, section 8, section 9 or section 10; (46) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (47) "private forests" means forests to which the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 (Act XXVII of 1949), applies, excluding-(i) areas which are waste and are not enclaves within wooded areas; (ii) areas which are gardens or nilams; (iii) areas which are planted with tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom or cinnamon; and (iv) other areas which are cultivated with pepper, arecanut, cocoanut, cashew or other fruit-bearing trees or are cultivated with any other agricultural crop; (48) (i) "punam or kumri cultivation" means fugitive or intermittent cultivation of paddy on dry lands in Malabar; (ii) "punam or kumri cultivator" means a person who has raised crops by punam or kumri cultivation in any year between 1953 and 1959 and, where there are successive cultivators in respect of the same land, the cultivator who raised crops last by such cultivation during the said period; (49) "rent" means whatever is lawfully payable in money or in kind or in both by a person permitted to have the use and occupation of any land to the person so permitting, and includes michavaram, but does not include customary dues; (50) "resumption" means the recovery of possession of land from a tenant; (51) "seaman" means every person (including a master, pilot or apprentice) employed or engaged as a member of the crew of a ship or a sailing vessel to which the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (Central Act 44 of 1958), applies; (52) "small holder" means a landlord who does not have interest in land exceeding eight standard acres or twenty-four acres in extent, whichever is less, as owner, intermediary, or cultivating tenant, or in two or more of the above capacities, so however that the extent of non-resumable land in his possession as owner, or as cultivating tenant, or partly as owner and partly as cultivating tenant, does not exceed-(i) four standard acres; or (ii) four acres in extent, whichever is greater. Explanation.-For the purposes of this clause, a person who was in possession of, or had interest in, land exceeding the limits specified in this clause immediately before the 18th December, 1957, but such extent of land was reduced to the said limits or below by partition or transfer effected after the date mentioned above, shall not be deemed to be a small holder; nor shall such partition or transfer entitle the allottee or transferee to exercise the rights of a small-holder in respect of the land allotted or transferred to him; (53) "Sreepadam lands" means the lands registered in the revenue records as "sreepadam vaka" and known as sreepadam lands, but does not include sreepadam thanathu lands; (54) "Sree Pandaravaka lands" means the lands owned by the Sree Padmanabhaswamy; (55) "standard acre" means, in relation to any class of land specified in Schedule II situate in the district or taluk mentioned therein, the extent of land specified against it in that Schedule; (56) "State" means the State of Kerala; (57) "tenant" means any person who has paid or has agreed to pay rent or other consideration, for his being allowed by another to possess and to enjoy the land of the latter, and includes-(a) an intermediary; (b) a kanamdar; (c) a kanam-kuzhikanamdar; (d) a kuzhikanamdar; (e) a mulgenidar; (f) a verumpattamdar of any description (including a customary verumpattamdar); (g) the holder of a chalgeni lease; (h) the holder of a kudiyiruppu; (i) the holder of a vaidageni lease; and (j) a person who is deemed to be a tenant under section 4, section 5, section 6, section 7, section 8, section 9 or section 10. Explanation.-For the purposes of this clause,- (i) "holder of a chalgeni lease" means a lessee or sub-lessee of specific immovable property situate in the taluk of Hosdrug or Kasaragod in the district of Cannanore, who has contracted either expressly or impliedly to hold the same under a lease, whether for a specified period or not; (ii) "mulgeni" means a tenancy in perpetuity at a fixed invariable rent created in favour of a person called mulgenidar; (iii) "vaidageni lease" means a lease for a term of years; (58) "timber trees" means trees, the yield or income from which has not to be taken into account for the determination of fair rent; (59) "to hold land" means to be in possession of land as owner or as tenant or partly as owner and partly as tenant; (60) "varam" means an arrangement for the cultivation of nilam with paddy and sharing the produce, made between the owner or other person in lawful possession of the nilam and the person who undertakes cultivation under such arrangement, and includes the arrangements known as pathivaram, pankuvaram and pankupattam; and "varamdar" means the person who undertakes cultivation under a varam arrangement; (61) "vechupakuthy" means a transaction whereunder a landowner permits another person to be in joint possession with him of any land with the following stipulations:-(i) the vechupakuthidar shall improve the land within a specified period; (ii) at the end of the period so specified-(a) the land shall be partitioned between the landowner and the vechupakuthidar in a specified proportion; (b) upon such partition, all the rights of either party over the portion of the land set apart for the other shall stand transferred to and vest in the other, and (iii) during the period between the date of the transaction aforesaid and the partition of the land the vechupakuthidar shall pay to the landowner such rent as may be specified; (62) (i) "verumpattamdar" means a lessee or sub-lessee of immovable property, whether called verumpattamdar, or venpattamdar, who has expressly or impliedly contracted to hold the same under a lease with or without security for rent, and includes a tharikuthukaran in the Palghat district, but does not include a kanamdar, kanam-kuzhikanamdar, or kuzhikanamdar; (ii) "customary verumpattamdar" means any verumpattamdar of immovable property situate in any area to which the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929, extended, who, before the commencement of the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1951, was entitled, by the custom of the locality in which the land was situated, to possession of the said land for a definite period of years, and for whose continuance thereon, after the termination of that period, for a further period, a renewal fee had to be paid to the landlord as an incident of the tenure.