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Showing contexts for: right to be forgotten in V.N. Narayanan Nair And Ors. vs State Of Kerala And Ors. on 14 August, 1970Matching Fragments
19. It would appeal that all the lauds held by the petitioners in these cases are agricultural lands -- at any rate, no arguments have been addressed before us on the footing that any of them are not; the assertions in some of the petitions, such as that a paddy land is not agricultural land because for part of the year, when it is under water, fishing is profitably conducted thereon, or that a coconut garden is not agricultural land because it happens to be situated within a city, have been rightly forgotten. We might here repeat that we are using the term, "agricultural land" in the sense relevant in the context of Article 31-A, namely, in the sense of the definition in Sub-clause (iii) of Clause (2) (a) of that article. It is the purpose for which the land is held, not its accidental use at a particular point of time, that determines whether it is agricultural land or not. If the land is held for purposes of agriculture or for purposes ancillary thereto (such as, for pasture or for the residence of cultivators of land, agricultural labourers or village artisans), it is agricultural land. Otherwise not. We suppose that something or other can be, and often is, grown on any vacant land, but that would not necessarily make it agricultural land for our purposes. To give an example the possibility of cultivating, or even the actual cultivation of, what is essentially a building site in the heart of a town would not make it agricultural land. It is the purpose for which it is held that determines its character, and the existence of a few coconut trees or a vegetable patch on the land cannot alter the fact that it is held for purposes of building and not for purposes of agriculture.