Judgement

N. H. BHAGWATI, J. : These six petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution challenge the vires of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Amendment) Act, 1956 (Bom. XIII of 1956) (hereinafter referred to as the "Impugned Act"). It was an Act further to amend the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 (Bom. LXVII of 1948) (hereinafter called the "1948 Act". )

2. The petitioners are citizens of India and landholders within the meaning of the 1948 Act holding several acres of land within the State of Bombay out of which a few acres are under their own cultivation, the bulk of the lands being under the cultivation of tenants-except in the case of the petitioners in petition No. 58 of 1958 where the whole of the lands are under the cultivation of tenants.

3. The 1948 Act had been passed by the State Legislature as a measure of agrarian reform on 28th December 1948, with a view to amend the law relating to tenancies of agricultural lands and to make certain other provisions in regard to those lands and the objectives sought to be achieved were thus set out in the second paragraph of the preamble : -

"AND WHEREAS on account of the neglect of a landholder or disputes betw