Judgment :- 1. For one year, the respondent plaintiff was in occupation of some land belonging to the appellant defendant, the State Government, having bought in auction the right to raise crops on that land for that year. Whether the transaction amounts to a lease, or, as seems to have been conceded by the appellant in the courts below, is only a licence, I think that the respondent was liable to pay the cesses collected from him for the year he was in occupation under the provisions of the Madras District Boards Act, 1920 and the Madras Elementary Education Act, 1920 but, for the repayment of which, the courts below have concurred in granting him a decree. 2. S.74-B of the Madras District Boards Act says that, "in every district, a land-cess being a tax on the annual rent value of lands shall be levied in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained in this Act." S. 78 says: "The Iand-cess shall be levied on the annual rent value of all occupied lands on whatever tenure held and shall consist of a tax of two annas in the rupee of the annual rent value of all such lands in the district." S. 79 says: "The annual rent value shall, for the purposes of S.78, be calculated in the following manner: (1) In the case of lands held direct from Government on ryotwari tenure or on lease or licence and also, in the ease of lands situated in the district of Malabar, on whatever tenure held, the assessment, lease amount, royalty or other sum payable to Government for the lands together with any water-rate which may be payable for their irrigation shall be taken to be the annual rent value x x x". And by S.88, the liability to pay the land cess is cast on every landholder and sub-landholder. 3. S.34 (2) of the Madras Elementary Education Act only authorises the imposition of an additional tax under among other heads, the head of land-cess, and the respondent's liability to pay this additional tax is entirely dependent on his liability to pay the land-cess under the Madras District Boards Act. 4. Whether the respondent is liable to pay the land-cess depends on whether or not he is a landholder in relation to the land in question within the meaning of the Madras District Boards Act. 4. Whether the respondent is liable to pay the land-cess depends on whether or not he is a landholder in relation to the land in question within the meaning of the Madras District Boards Act. S.3 (9) of that Act defines landholder thus: 'landholder' includes all persons holding under a sunad-i-milkiat-istimrar, all other reminders poligars, shrotriyamdars, jagirdars and umamdars, all persons registered as proprietors under S.5 of the Madras Limited Proprietors Act, 1911, and all persons forming the land revenue under Government, all holders of land in the district of Malabar under whatever tenure, and all holders of land under ryotwari settlement, or in any way subject to the payment of land revenue direct to Government, and all registered holders of tend in proprietary right." The land in this case is in the district of Malabar and the question then is whether the respondent as a mere licensee, can be said to be a holder of the land under some tenure or other. 5. It is said that a licensee is at best in occupation of the land and does not hold the land; in particular that, not being a tenant, heroes not hold it under tenure. Therefore be is not a "landholder". Moreover, the land occupied by him not being held under any tenure does not attract the taxing section, S.78, which says that the land-cess shall be levied on the annual rent value of all occupied lands on whatever tenure held. But, it seems to me, that a person who occupies land can properly be said to be a holder of the land even if he owns no other interest in it and, that the word, "tenure" does not necessary imply a tenancy. The dictionary meaning of the word, "holder" in relation to land includes a mere occupier of the land, while the word "tenure" only means the mode of holding land-see Wharton's Law Lexicon, Fourteenth Edition, page 963 and Ramanatha Aiyar's Law Lexicon page 1269 although in a special sense it signifies the relation of tenant to lord. Its ordinary dictionary meaning as given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is "kind of right or title by which (esp. real) property is held", and I can see no reason why a person in occupation of land under a licence cannot properly be described as holding it under a tenure, his tenure being the licence, 6. Its ordinary dictionary meaning as given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is "kind of right or title by which (esp. real) property is held", and I can see no reason why a person in occupation of land under a licence cannot properly be described as holding it under a tenure, his tenure being the licence, 6. That the Act uses the words, "hold" and "tenure" in the sense in which I have understood those words is quite apparent from a reading of S.74-B, 78 and 79. Under S.74-B a land-cess shall be levied on the annual rent value of the land and under S.78 it is to be levied on the annual rent value of all occupied lands on whatever tenure held. Clearly what S.78 means is that all occupied land is held by the occupier under some tenure or other and that a land-cess is to be levied on all such land whatever be the manner or right, in other words, the tenure under which the occupier holds it. S.79 makes the position clear for it speaks of land held direct from Government on license which necessarily means that person occupying land on licence holds it. That being so, it follows that he holds the land under some tenure or other, the tenure being the right under which he holds the land. 7. The respondent being a landholder as defined by S.3 (9) of the Madras District Boards Act in respect of the land in question, holding direct from Government on a licence, he was rightly assessed to tax under S.79 of the Madras District Boards Act on the sum payable by him to Government for holding the land, and the cess was rightly collected from him under S.88. 8. In the result I allow this appeal and dismiss the respondent plaintiffs' suit with costs throughout. 8. Leave granted. Allowed.