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The details of the holdings of the petitioners are briefly as follows :-

Petitioner company owns a block of land AC. 2313-00 in extent out of which AC. 1818-00 were planted with rubber trees, AC. 30-00 with pepper, AC. 5-50 with arecanut, AC. 260-00 under cocoanut, AC. 12-50 under paddy, AC. 25-00 under nutmeg and fruit trees, the rest being jungle and waste.

Petitioner, a, citizen, owns land in Kesargod taluk consisting of AC. 21-00 under cocoanut, AC. 6-00 paddy land and AC. 34-00 dry land. He also leased out AC. 91-00 of land to tenants. He owns jointly with his brother an arecanut garden of AC. 5-50, cocoanut plantation of AC. 49- 00 and cashew plantation of AC. 25-00.

Petitioner owned lands in Kasargod taluk AC. 9-94 in extent which has been usufructuarily mortgaged for a long time.

Petitioner is a ryotwari pattadar holding pepper garden AC. 30-00, arecanut AC. 45-00, rubber estate AC. 445-00 cashew plantation AC. 25-00, cocoanut garden AC. 44-00 and paddy lands of AC. 2-00, all under personal cultivation. He has also leased out AC. 673-00 of dry land to tenants. Besides the above he cultivates as lessee AC. 56-00 of pepper garden and owns with his brother Ac. 22-00 of pepper garden and arecanut garden etc. He also owns with other members of his family Ac. 19--00 of land set apart and used as dairy farm.

(b) By the deletion of cls. (f ) and (g) of, s. 8 1 (I) by the amendment of 1969 and taking away the exemption given by the 1964 Act to cashewe states of AC. 10-00 or more and pure pepper gardens and pure areca gardens of AC. 5-00 or more, the enactment has become violative of Art. 14 as was, pointed out in Karimbil Kunhikoman's ease (supra) as should be struck down. It was further said that these plantations i.e. of cashew, pepper and areca, are of as much importance to the national economy as tea, coffee etc. which have received protection under the Act as plantations and the scheme of the Act whereby most of these plantations will be decimated to support landless or near landless persons cannot be upheld on the ground of agrarian reform. It was argued that the State of Kerala taxes all plantations alike under Act 17 of 1960. Further, Plantations Labour Act 69 of 1951 treats all plantations as industries. Sub-division of plantations into two groups one of which is exempted under the Act and the other is not, savours of discrimination and violates Art. 14.

So far clauses (f) and (g) are concerned it was argued on behalf of the petitioners that the decision of this Court in Karimbil Kunhikoman's case (supra) would still hold and unless provision for exemption of plantations of pepper and arecanut were provided for the Act would suffer from the same defect as was pointed out in the judgment of this Court.

In the counter affidavit of the State it is asserted that pepper, arecanut, cashew and cocoanut are not cultivated in the same manner as tea, coffee, or rubber and these are essentially "homestead garden crops". The State does not admit that in Kerala pepper cultivation has reached the plantation stage or that arecanut is generally grown on a plantation scale and asserts that the cultivation of pepper, areca, cashew and cocoanut is in the main on holdings of less than Ac. 5-00. It appears to us that in giving exemption to. pure pepper gardens and pure arecanut gardens- the, word "pure" being used to show that the lands were being utilised substantially if not exclusively for training pepper vines and growing arecanut trees-the State recognised that these called for some protection but now the State asserts that pepper and areca are "'essentially homestead garden crops" or that "these have not reached the plantation stage." After all the State is best qualified to consider are overall aspect of the matter in relation to its economy and on the materials before us we cannot hold that the State's viewpoint is not corect.