Definitions

In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context :-

1. (1) 'Agricultural year ' means the year commencing with the 15th March in any calendar year and ending with the 14th March of the following calendar year, or the year between such other dates as the Collector may specify in that behalf by notification in the District Gazette, for the Gudalur taluk;
2. (2) ' Commercial site ' means any land (not being a kudiyiruppu, or an ulkudi) which is used principally for the purposes of any trade, commerce, industry, manufacture or business ;
3. (3) ' Court ' means the Civil 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 ;
4. (4) ' Cultivate', with its grammatical variations, means cultivate either solely by one's own labour or with the help of the labour of the members of one's tarwad, tavazhi, illom, kutumba, kavaru or family, or of hired labourers or both, or direct or supervise cultivation by such members or hired labourers, jointly or separately, provided that such members or hired labourers have not agreed to pay or 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 ;
5. (5) ' Dry land ' means a land which is neither a ' wet land ' nor a ' garden land ';
6. (6) ' Eviction ' means the recovery of possession of land from a tenant and includes the redemption of a kanam or kanam-kuzhikanam ;
7. (7) ' Fair rent ' means the rent payable in accordance with the provisions of Chapter II ;
8. (8) ' Garden land ' means any land used principally for growing coconut trees or areca trees or both ;
9. (9) ' Holding ' means a parcel or parcels of land held under a single engagement by a tenant from a landlord and shall include any portion of a holding as above defined, which the landlord and the tenant may agree to treat as a separate holding ;
10. (10) ' Illom ' shall have the same meaning as in the Tamil Nadu Nambudri Act, 1932; (11)
    • (a) the word ' improvement ' shall have the same meaning as it has in the Improvements Act ;
    • (b) ' Improvements Act ' means the Malabar Compensation for Tenants' Improvements Act, 1899 ;
11. (12) ' Intermediary ' means any person who, not being a janmi, has an interest in land, and is entitled, by reason of such interest, to possession thereof, but has transferred such possession to others ;
12. (13) ' Janmi ' means a person entitled to the absolute proprietorship of land and includes a trustee in respect thereof ;
13. (14) ' 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 (called the 'kanamdar') for the latter's enjoyment, 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 which consideration is called 'kanartham',
    • (b) the liability of the transferor to pay to the transferee interest on the kanartham, and
    • (c) the payment of 'michavaram' by the transferee ;
14. (15) ' Kanam-kuzhikanam ' means and includes a transfer by a landlord to another (called the 'kanam-kuzhikanamdar') 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 ;
15. (16) 'Kavaru' and 'Kutumba' shall have the same meaning as in the Tamil Nadu Aliyasantana Act, 1949 : (17)
    • (a) 'Kudiyiruppu' means and includes 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 the easements attached thereto but does not include an ulkudi.
    • (b) 'Separate kudiyiruppu' means a kudiyiruppu which is the sole property comprised in a holding ;
    • (c) 'Separable kudiyiruppu' means a kudiyiruppu which is included with other property in a holding and which is not necessary for the convenient enjoyment, as usual, of any other part of the holding ;
16. (18) 'Kuzhikanam' means and includes a transfer by a landlord to another (called the kuzhikanamdar) 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 ;
17. (19) 'Landlord' means a person under whom a tenant holds and to whom he is liable to pay rent or michavaram and includes a janmi;
18. (20) 'Melcharth' means the transfer by the landlord of part of his interest in any land held by his tenant by which the transferee is entitled to evict such tenant;
19. (21) 'Michavaram' means whatever is agreed by a kanamdar, in a kanam deed to be paid periodically, in money or in kind or in both, to or on behalf of the janmi;
20. (23) 'Pay', with its grammatical variations, includes deliver ;
21. (24) 'Prescribed' means prescribed by rules made under this Act ;
22. (25) 'Rent' means whatever is lawfully payable in money or in kind or in both, to a person entitled to the use or occupation of a land, by another, permitted by the person so entitled, to have the use or occupation of the said land, for any purpose on the understanding, express or implied, that the person so permitted would pay consideration for such use or occupation ;
23. (26) ' Rent Court ', means in relation to any area, the Rent Court constituted under this Act for such area, and where no Rent Court has been constituted, the Revenue Divisional Officer or the Tahsildar having jurisdiction over such area, appointed by the State Government to exercise the functions of Rent Court under this Act ;
24. (27) ' Tenant ' means any person who has paid or has agreed to pay rent or other consideration, for his being allowed by another, to enjoy the land of the latter, and includes an intermediary, a kanamdar, a kanam-kuzhikanamdar, a kuzhikanamdar, a verumpattamdar of any description and the holder of a kudiyiruppu ; (28)
    • (a) ' Ulkudi ' means a hut in any portion of a land in the occupation of a person who has been permitted by the person entitled to possession of such land to occupy the hut and who otherwise has no interest in such land ;
    • (b) ' Protected Ulkudi ' means an ulkudi which has been in the continuous occupation of the holder or of any member of his tarwad, tavazhi, illom, kutumba, kavaru or family for not less than one year ;
    • (c) ' Customary verumpattamdar ' means any verumpattamdar 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 ; and
25. (30) ' Wet land ' means land which is adapted for the cultivation of paddy.