JUDGMENT

Dr. AR. Lakshmanan, J.-Leave granted.

2. The present appeals were filed against the final judgment and order dated 23/26.03.2004 and 02/05.4.2004 passed by the High Court of Gujarat in Misc. Civil Application No. 2340 and 2341 of 2003 and in Special Civil Application No. 1032 of 1996 whereby the High Court dismissed the application filed by the appellants herein.

3. This case has a chequered history. Parties to this action are fighting a legal battle in the Court of law from 1971 onwards and still has not reached the finality of the litigation for one reason or the other.

4. The former Ruler of Bhavnagar was the owner of large extent of lands in the area in question. The subject-matter of this litigation are the lands owned by the former Ruler comprised in survey Nos. 469/1, 470/1, 471/2, 471/3 and 472 Village Vadva aggregating about 952 acres being a Bid Land (a pasture land) was excluded from the purview of Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling Act, 1960, (hereinafter referred to as "the ALC Act"). This decision taken by the Collector on 26.03.1971 went through the motion of appeal remand etc. and finally the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal (for short "the GRT") held that the land in q