A Full Bench of the Kerala High Court has held that use of land for excavating soil or quarrying granite stones does not make the land a ‘commercial site’ in order to qualify for exemption from ceiling limit under the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963.
In a 2:1 judgment on Friday, the Bench, however, said any industrial activity existing on the surface of the land like a metal crusher unit or artificial sand manufacturing unit may perhaps qualify for exemption. While Justice V. Chithamabresh and Justice Sathish Nina made the ruling, Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar gave a dissenting verdict.
Overruling a Division Bench’s ruling in the State of Kerala vs Mohammedali Haji case (1996) that the site of a quarry would fall within the definition of ‘commercial site,’ the majority judgment observed that even the land set apart for an industrial or commercial undertaking at the commencement of the Act would lose exemption if it was not used for the purpose under Section 81(1)(k) of the Act.
The idea was that any more of the land shall not be put to use in a manner making the agricultural operations impossible after the commencement of the Act.
The judges pointed out that the emphasis of the Act was on the availability of the land for all time to come so that it could be made use of for agricultural production in case of contingency to boost the economy of the State. ‘‘Using up the land by extracting granite stones from the table of earth does not make the site ‘commercial’ and eligible for exemption from the ceiling area under Section 81(1)(q) read with Section 2(5) of the Act,’’ they observed.
Dissenting verdict
In his dissenting verdict, Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar observed that the view that the law laid down in the Mohammedali Haji case needed to be reconsidered on account of environmental concerns could not be accepted.
