JUDGMENT

Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, J.-Leave is granted in SLP (C) No. 4897 of 1980.

2. These appeals, by special leave, arise from the common judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Special Civil Application Nos. 1897 of 1973 and 1901 of 1973 dated March 15, 1979. In the appeals the appellants-landlords are common but the first respondent-tenant is different.

3. To appreciate the question involved in these cases, it will suffice to refer to the facts in Civil Appeal No. 568 of 1981.

4. The dispute arises under the Bombay Tenancy & Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 (for short, the Act ) and relates to agricultural lands bearing Survey Nos. 661/3, 675/1, 692/1, 693/2, 695/5, 691/1 and 702/2 of village Bhayandar District Thana, Maharashtra State, out of which an extent of Acres 2 = 31 guntas (hereinafter referred to as, the lands in dispute ), is the subject-matter of Civil Appeal No. 568 of 1981. They are inam lands. The appellants were initially the tenants of the lands in dispute under the Inamdar. The case of the appellants is that the first respondent, being their close relative, was permitted to cultivate the lands in dispute. He, however, claimed to be the tenan