Judgment

DUA, J.: - This appeal on certificate has been preferred by one set of pre-emptors (plaintiffs in suit No. 556 of 1958) against the judgment and decree of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana allowing the rival plaintiffs-pre-emptors appeal by reducing the pre-emption money and passing a decree of pre-emption on payment of Rs. 1,05,800 instead of Rs. 1,35,000 as directed by the trial Court.

2. On behalf of the rival pre-emptors (plaintiffs in suit No. 559 of 1958) who are arrayed as respondents 1 to 3 in this Court, a preliminary objection was taken to the competency of the present appeal. The appellants right to appeal was challenged on the ground that the amendment of the Punjab Pre-emption Act (hereinafter called the Act) by the Punjab Act X of 1960 had deprived them of their right of preemption with retrospective effect. The appellants had based their right of pre-emption in their suit on the ground of their being proprietors of the village. They were deprived of this right by the Amending Act of 1960 and Section 31 of the Act as amended made the amendment retrospective in its operation by prohibiting the Courts from passing decrees inconsistent with the Amended Act. T