Judgement

SIKRI, J.: The Municipal Committee, Jalalabad, respondent before us in these appeals, filed an application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution praying that Section 20B of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954 - hereinafter referred to as the Compensation Act - be declared ultra vires the Constitution and that the memorandum dated March 14, 1963, communicated by the District Rent and Managing Officer, Jalalabad, be quashed. The learned Single Judge, following an earlier judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Kirpal Singh v. The Central Government, ILR (1967) 2 Punj & Har 574, held that Section 20B of the Compensation Act was ultra vires and quashed the impugned order dated March 14, 1963, and directed the restoration of the property in dispute to the Municipal Committee. An appeal was taken to the Letters Patent Bench but this was dismissed in limine. Two appeals have been filed against this judgment, one by the Union of India and its officers who are interested only in the question of the vires of the Section , and the other by Lachhmandas and others to whom the shops in dispute have been transferred.

2. The relevant facts ma