Judgment

HIDAYATULLAH, J. :- In these two appeals the appellants seek to displace a common judgment and order of the High Court of Calcutta dated March 26, 1962 by which a Full Bench of the Court, specially constituted to hear and determine certain petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution involving a common point of law, discharged the Rule issued earlier in them. These cases were concerned with Muslim wakfs in which either the ultimate benefit to charity is postponed till after the exhaustion of the wakif s family and descendants or the income from the wakf estate is applied for the maintenance of the family side by side with expenditure for charitable or religious purposes. The common question which arose and still arises is whether these wakfs are affected by the passing of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 (West Bengal Act I of 1954). That Act, in common with similar Acts of other States in India abolished from a date notified by the State Government all intermediaries such as promoters, tenure-holders, etc., between the raiyat and the State and vested the estates and the rights of the intermediaries in the State free from all encumbrances. Section 3 of the Act p