Kerala   

Verdict on cardamom cultivators stayed

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a High Court judgment denying benefit to encroachers in the grant of lease of Government lands for cardamom cultivation.

A Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice P.P. Naolekar granted the interim stay on a special leave petition (SLP) from a batch of cultivators challenging the July 10 judgment. It issued notice to the Kerala Government.

The SLP said that the cultivators fulfilled the definition of ‘encroacher’ under Rule 2 (b) of Cardamom Rules, 1961, under which they were entitled to obtain lease of the land.

The Board of Revenue by an order dated March 25, 1995 said that the possession of lands might be regularised as lease/assignment to the extent permitted by the Rules. Since the cultivators were denied the benefit of continuity in cultivation, they approached the High Court for necessary relief.

The High Court, as per the impugned judgment, had redrafted Rule 2 (b) and nullified all leases granted to the cardamom growers. The SLP pointed out that the entire cardamom cultivation in Kerala originated from Government land given on lease. It would take seven years for a cardamom plant to give the yield and that no farmer was prepared to invest time, money or energy for growing cardamom.

It was in this background that the Government enacted the Cardamom Rules to lease Government lands for cardamom cultivation to ‘encroachers’ who were in occupation of the same.

The High Court had committed a serious error in holding that grant of lease of cardamom cultivation to an encroacher subsequent to June 5, 1961 would defeat the purpose of the Kerala Land Reforms Act. Implementing the judgment would affect several thousands of farmers, who had been granted lease.

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