Judgement

VENKATARAMA AYYAR, J.- These are petitions filed under Art. 32 of the Constitution by proprietors of lands in the State of Rajasthan, challenging the vires of The Rajasthan (Protection of Tenants ) Ordinance, 1949, Ordinance No IX of 1949 , hereinafter referred to as the Ordinance, of notifications dated June 14,1951 and June 20,1953 issued thereunder and of the Rajasthan (Protection of Tenants) Amendment Act No. X of 1954.

2. It will be useful at the outset to state briefly the facts relating to the constitution of the legislative authority, in the exercise of which the impugned Ordinance and notifications were issued. When the British were the Rulers of this Country, Rajputana, as the State was then known, consisted of 18 principalities claiming sovereign status. After independence, a movement was set afoot for the integration of all the principalities into a single State, and the process was completed on May 5,1949, when all of them became merged in a Union called the United State of Rajasthan. The constitution of the State was settled in a Covenant, to which all the Rulers agreed. Under Art. II of the Covenant, the States agreed "to unite and integrate their territorie