JUDGMENT

ORDER :— The principal question that has been mooted before us in this petition for special leave to appeal under Art. 136 of the Constitution, against an appellate judgment dated 21st July, 1976 of the High Court at Calcutta is, whether a bamboo garden or banana plantation is an Orchard within the meaning of S. 6 (1) (f) of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1954 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The material portion of S. 6 of the Act reads as under :

"6 (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Ss. 4 and 5, an intermediary shall except in the cases mentioned in the proviso to sub-sec. (2) but subject to other provisions of that sub-sec., be entitled to retain with effect from the date of vesting -

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(f) subject to the provisions of sub-sec. (3) land comprised in tea garden or orchard or land used for the purpose of live stock breeding, poultry farming or dairy."

2. The petitioner claims himself to be an intermediary. The High Court has held (reversing the judgments of the courts below) that a cultivated bamboo garden would fall within the definition of Agricultural land in S. 2 (b) of the Act and cannot in any view be called an orchard within