Judgment

SINHA, C.J.I. : These two appeals, by special leave, directed against the judgment and decree of a Single Judge of the Bombay High Court, raise a common question of law, and have, therefore, been heard together. This judgment will govern both the cases. The appellants were plaintiff-landlords, and the respondents were tenants-in-possession of certain lands which were situate in the erstwhile State of Baroda before it became part of the State of Bombay, by merger. The Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act (Bombay Act LXVII of 1948) -- which hereinafter will be referred to as the Act -- was extended to Baroda on August 1, 1949. The suits out of which these appeals arise had been instituted by the appellants on the basis that the tenants-respondents had become trespassers on the service of notice in March 1950, with effect from the beginning of the new agricultural season in May 1951. As the defendants did not comply with the terms of the notice and continued in possession of the lands, to which they had been inducted, the landlords instituted suits for possession in the Civil Court. The Trial Courts and the Court of Appeal decreed the suits for possession. But on second a