Judgment

KRSHNA IYER, J.:- All the parties are represented by counsel and we have heard them in extenso. We therefore proceed to pass a speaking order.

2. The princely family of Cochin with a proletarian plurality of members has been the cynosure of special legislations, the last of which is Act 15 of 1978, the target of attack in this special leave petition. Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution have been the ammunition used by the petitioner in the High Court and here to shoot down the legislation as ultra vires.

2-A. A brief sketch of the family law of the Cochin royalty may serve to appreciate the schemes of the latest legislation under challenge. The Maharaja of Cochin, reigned and ruled over a pretty princely State, Cochin, which is now an integral part of the Kerala State. When the curtain of history rose to find India free, the constellation of princedoms fused into Independent Indias democratic geography. Cochin and Travancore finally fell in with this trend. As a first step they were integrated into the Travancore Cochin State which came into being on July 1, 1949. Two days before this constitutional merger, the Maharaja of Cochin issued a Proclamation to provide for the im