TMI Blog1901 (3) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stration Act, 1877, inasmuch as it was not a lease, for a period not exceeding five years. 2. The second ground is clearly untenable and the Munsif has evidently overlooked the ruling of this Court in Virammal v. Runqayyangar I.L.R. 4 Mad. 381. The term of the lease may no doubt continue beyond five years in the event of neither party determining it in the meanwhile, but as either party may determine it before five years, it cannot be said to be a lease for a terra exceeding live years and inasmuch as the annual rent is below ₹ 50, its registration is optional under Clause (c) of Section 18 of the Registration Act. 3. The Munsif is also, in my opinion, wrong in holding that a lease of land for betel cultivation is not an agr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... property and in which the same expression agricultural purpose occurs, would clearly show that the Legislature could not have intended that the word agriculture was to be understood as excluding a large class of leases of garden lands in this country some or many of which in England may perhaps be regarded as horticultural. That section provides that, in the absence of a contract to the contrary, a lease for agricultural purposes shall be presumed to be one from year to year, but that a lease for other purposes shall be presumed to be only from month to month. It could not have been the intention of the Legislature that in respect of leases of garden lands to be cultivated as vegetable or other garden the presumption, in the absence of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sumption by way of luxury, if not as an article of diet. In the definition of agriculturist (Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act, 1879) the Legislature could not have intended to exclude from its beneficial operation persons who earned their livelihood by cultivating vegetable and fruit gardens and orchards. In Venkayya v. Ramasami I.L.R. 22 Mad. 39, it was held that a tenant having a right of occupancy in nunja lands cultivated with paddy and ragi did not change the character of the holding by converting it into a cocoanut tope. It was held that instead of raising one kind of crop (paddy or ragi) by tillage, he raised without tillage another kind of crop (cocoanut). That decision proceeds, in my opinion, on the principle that the holdi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as to garden and dry cultivation, the object of all such cultivation being chiefly to procure food for men and cattle and other products of the soil which are usually consumed by the people as gentle stimulants or by way of luxury. Betel leaf is an article of daily consumption with all classes in this country as tobacco leaf is with most classes and betel vine is generally grown side by side with plantains, the products of which are among the chief articles of vegetable food. The lease in this case being one for the cultivation of betel is, according to the usage and custom of the country, an agricultural lease and. as such, falls under Section 117 of the Transfer of Property Act, and is not therefore governed by Section 107 of that Act and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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