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TMI Blog1990 (4) TMI 281X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... reiterated by a larger Bench of five Judges in State of Kerala v.K.C. Moosa Haji & Ors., AIR 1984 Kerala 149, Losing the construction argument, the appellant has appealed to this Court. The facts of the case are immaterial for the purpose of this judgment, save to state in the barest outline that the appellant is the Rayon Silk Manufacturing Company registered in the State of Madhya Pradesh. One of its industrial undertakings is located in Bilakootam, Mavoor in Kozhikode District, Kerala State. This establishment produces Rayon Grade Pulp, using Bamboo Eucalyptus and other species of wood as basic raw material. It has a large eucalyptus plantation coveting thousands of acres, maintained as captive raw material for use in the factory. The State says that as a consequence of the Vesting Act, the eucalyptus 8plantation being a private forest and not excluded therefrom is vested in the State with no fight, title and interest subsisting with the company. The claim of the company, however, is that the term 'private forest' as defined under the Vesting Act, excludes the eucalyptus plantation. 'Private forest' has been defined in the Vesting Act as well as under the Kerala Land Reforms ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n of Private Forests Act, 1949 did not apply, including waste lands which are enclaves within wooded areas. (2) in relation to the remaining areas in the State of Kerala, any forest not owned by the Government, including waste lands which are enclaves within wooded areas. Explanation: For the purposes of this clause, a lane shall be deemed to be a waste land notwithstanding the existence thereon of scattered trees or shrubs;" We may first examine the scope of the definition of 'private forest' under Section 2(47) of the KLR Act. It means a forest which is not owned by the Government, excluding thereby four kinds of areas specified under sub-clauses (i) to (iv). The latter part of sub-clause (iv) contains the words" ..... Other areas cultivated with any other agricultural crop". The terms 'agriculture' and 'agricultural crop' have wider as well as narrower connotation. The wider concept covers both the primary or basic as well as the subsequent operations. It takes within its fold among other things, the products of the land which have some utility either for consumption or for trade and commerce including forest products such as timber, sal and piyasal trees, casu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... enactment, its antecedents as well .,as .its later history, its relation to other enactments, all may be relevant to the construction of words for one purpose and in one-setting but not for another. Some words are confined to their history; some are starting points for history. 'Words are intellectual and moral currency. They come from the legislative mint with some intrinsic meaning. Sometimes it remains unchanged. Like currency, words sometimes appreciate or depreciate in value". The learned Judge further stated: "Legislation has an aim; it seeks to obviate some mischief, to supply an inadequacy, to effect a change of policy, to formulate a plan of government. That aim, that policy is not drawn, like nitrogen, out of the air; it is evinced in the language of the statute, as read in the light of other external manifestations of purpose. That is what the Judge must seek and effectuate." (See: Courts, Judges and Politics by Walter F. Murphy: 'Some Reflections of the Reading of Statutes' by Felix Frankfurter). Judicial interpretation given to the words defined in one statute does not afford a guide to construction of the same words in another statute unless the Statu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ith fresh replantation. Therefore, it seems inappropriate to transplant the meaning accorded to 'private forest' from the KLR Act to the Vesting Act. That wide concept cannot fit into the new legal source. In State of Kerala v. Gwalior Rayon Sm. Mfg. (Wvg.) Co. Ltd., [1974] 1 SCR 67 1, this Court while upholding the constitutional validity of the Vesting Act has observed that the Forest Lands in the State of Kerala has attained a peculiar character owing to the geography and climate and the evidence available showed that the vast areas of these forests are still capable of supporting a large agricultural plantations. That much is clear from the following observations (at 683): "It is therefore, manifest that when the legislature stated in the preamble that the private forests are agricultural lands, they merely wanted to convey that they are lands which by and large could be prudently and profitably exploited for agricultural purposes." There is thus a judicial recognition of the distinction between private forest in Travancore-Cochin area in Kerala State and the private forest in Malabar district. This distinction by itself is sufficient to dispel the anomalies sugges ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The explanation to subsection (2) makes this aspect beyond doubt. The lands used for the cultivation of any kind of tree, fruit bearing or yielding only timber or pulp are not vested under Section 3 sub-section (2). The legislature has thus excluded from vesting under Section 3 sub-section (2) the trees of every variety. But while providing for exclusion under sub-clause (C), the legislature could not have again thought of trees or plants of all kinds. It seems to have considered only fruit-bearing trees and not of other species. If the intention was otherwise, the sub-clause(C) would have been in a different language.
In our view as a matter of pure construction untrammelled by authority, the words used in the latter part of sub-clause (C) could not take within its fold all varieties of trees and it could exclude only fruit-bearing trees.
This is also the conclusion of the High Court not only in the impugned judgment under appeal but also in the subsequent two decisions; Malayalam Plantation Limited and K.C. Maosa Haji cases (supra).
In the result the appeal fails and is dismissed. In the circumstances of the case, however, we make no order as to costs.
Appeal dismissed. X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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