Judgement

JAGANNADHADAS J.: These are appeals by leave granted by the High Court of Bombay under Article 133(l) (c) of the Constitution against its common judgment disposing of certain applications under Article 226. The short point involved in these appeals is whether the Bombay Taluqdari Tenure Abolition Act, 19

(hereinafter referred to as the Act) is valid in law. The impugned Act, as its very name indicates, was for the purpose of abolishing taluqdari tenures in Bombay. Section 3 of the Act enacts that with effect from the date on which the Act was to come into force the taluqdari tenure wherever it prevailed shall be deemed to have been abolished.

Under S. 5(1)(a) all taluqdari lands are and shall be liable to the payment of land revenue in accordance with the provisions of the Bombay Land Revenue Code and the rules made thereunder. Under S. 6, broadly stated, all the items of property which are comprised within the taluqdari and belong to the taluqdar vest in the Government as its property and all rights held by taluqdar in such property shall be deemed to have been extinguished.

Section 7 provides for payment of compensation in respect of the property so vested and rights so