Kerala High Court rules fish not food crop
Prawns cannot be recognised as a food crop under the KLU order
By : rohit raj
Update: 2015-10-18 06:26 GMT
Kochi: In a major order that may help many to convert marshlands for development activities, the High Court has held that fish will not come under the definition of food crop and struck down the clauses 2(b) and 4 of the Land Utilisation Order, 1967.
The owner cannot be called upon to cultivate the land with prawns or fish even if the land is marshy, the court held.
Justice A. V. Ramak-rishna Pillai passed the order while considering a petition filed by Madathil Prashanth, who questioned the revenue divisional officer’s order to cultivate fish on marshy land.
The petitioner submitted that a river covered his land partially, and the land originally was marshland. He argued that it had become non-marshy owing to soil erosion from adjoining areas.
When the petitioner expressed inability to cultivate the land with fish, another notice was issued directing auction for prawn cultivation for three years.
The court struck down the clause and observed that prawn is not a fish, and it is a crustacean falling in phylum arthropod unlike an aquatint invertebrate.
Prawns cannot be recognised as a food crop under the KLU order. All foodstuffs are not food crops. Under no stretch of the imagination, it could be said that section 3 (2) (b) of the Act intended to include fish. The inclusion of fish in the definition of food crops in the KLU order, 1967, is without any authority of law, it held.