Judgment The only question that arises in this revision is whether the petitioner is a tenant within the meaning of Madras Act XIV of 1930. The learned District Munsiff held that he was not a tenant and therefore dismissed the application for stay under Madras Act XVII of 1946. The petitioner is in possession of certain dry lands wherein ginger, millets, gingelly, Modan paddy are grown in different portions of the land in different years. He came into possesssion of the suit lands under a verumpattam chit dated 21st December, 1920. In section 3(w) (1) of the Malabar Tenancy Act "verumpattamdar" is defined as follows: "Verumpattamdar" means a tenant other than a kanamdar of Kuzhikanamdar of a holding, for agricultural purposes, which includes wet lands, and may or may not include other lands." "Wet land" is defined to mean "land which is adapted for the cultivation of paddy" The learned District Munisiff after a consideration of the various circumstances, having regard to the nature of the land and the crops raised on the land, held that the land was not adapted for the cultivation of paddy. Mr. Sesha Aiyar, the learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the said finding is contrary to the admitted facts of the case and also to the other findings of the learned District Munsiff, No doubt the learned District Munsiff observes at one stage of the judgment that Modan paddy is inferior in quality to the ordinary paddy and is grown in dry lands as a dry crop. But having regard to the definition of "verumpattam" and "wet land" I am also inclined to agree with the learned District Munsiff that the definition "wet land" is not intended to cover a land wherein only Modan paddy, a species of dry crop is raised. It may safely be assumed that the authors of this Act knew that Modan paddy though described as paddy was really a kind of crop raised on dry lands. The word "paddy" in the definition of "wet land" must therefore be confined to that kind of grain which is understood by the people of the locality as paddy in the ordinary sense of the term. From the mere fact that in some portions a kind of crop which is described as Modan crop is grown, it cannot be held that the land is adapted for the cultivation of paddy. From the mere fact that in some portions a kind of crop which is described as Modan crop is grown, it cannot be held that the land is adapted for the cultivation of paddy. Agreeing with the lower court, I dismiss the revision petition with costs. V.S. ----- Petition dismissed.