JUDGMENT

K. N. SAIKIA, J. :— This appeal by special leave is from the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in the appellants regular second appeal No. 706 of 1973 dismissing the appeal and allowing the respondents civil writ petition against the order passed by the Assistant Collector.

2. Late Wg. Cdr. K. K. Majumdar, of the Indian Air Force, father of the appellant laid down his life during the second world war. He was conferred a gallantry award posthumously by the Government wherewith 442 Kanals and 10 Marlas of land bearing Chack Nos. 535-G-V situated in Tehsil and District Layallpur was granted to him and was allotted to the appellant Shri S. K. Majumdar who took possession on July 24, 1947. Consequent to the partition of the country the family of late Wg. Cdr. K. K. Majumdar had to migrate to India where the Government allotted 69 standard acres and 2 units of land to the appellant in village Dhogri Tehsil and District Jullundhur as compensation for the land left behind at Layallpur, Pakistan. Out of this land 19 standard acres came under possession of the respondent Malik Labhu Masih (now deceased) as a tenant.

3. On February 26, 1961 Malik Labhu Masih filed an application under S. 18 of the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953, hereinafter referred to as the Act, to the Assistant Collector stating that he was a tenant in respect of the land in question and should be granted permission to purchase it. As per order of the Assistant Collector Grade I Jullundhur dated 15th January, 1962 the said Labhu Masih was granted the requisite permission subject to the payment of Rs. 21,007.88 p. in 10 equal half yearly instalments of Rs. 2100.80 p. each. The appellant appealed therefrom to the Collector Jullundhur who upheld the permission to purchase but enhanced the amount payable to the appellant as landlord to Rs. 23,133.53 p. During the pendency of the said proceedings the appellant moved an application under S. 9 read with S. 14A of the Act for ejectment of the respondent and obtained an order on 27th September, 1961. The respondent moved a revision petition before the Commissioner in the proceedings initiated under S. 18 of the Act and the Commissioner made recommendation to the Financial Commissioner for setting aside the orders of the Assistant Collector and the Collector allowing the purchase of land by the respondent on the ground that the application of the appellant for ejectment of the respondent had since been allowed. The Financial Commissioner accordingly set aside the order of purchase. The respondent impugned that order in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in writ petition No. 1158 of 1963 and the High Court quashed that order on 30th August, 1966. On July 3, 1970 the appellant filed a suit against the respondent for possession of the lands contending that the respondent had entered on a part of the land as tenant and subsequently applied for purchase of the land under S. 18 of the Act but by virtue of S. 19DD of the Act, which was inserted on August 3, 1968 with retrospective effect, the suit property of gallantry award was exempted from the provisions of the Act and as such the respondent could not purchase the land under S. 18 of the Act and the orders passed by the Assistant Collector as also of High Court were nullity and the respondent was consequently liable to be ejected. The trial Court dismissed the suit. The appellants appeal therefrom was also having been dismissed by the Additional District Judge Jullundhur, the appellant preferred second appeal to the High Court of Punjab an Haryana which also dismissed the appeal holding that S. 19DD of the Act was not applicable to the suit land and the tenant could purchase it under S. 18.

4. Dr. Y. S. Chitale the learned counsel for the appellant submits that the High Court was in error in holding that the land in question having been granted to the appellant S. K. Majumdar, the landlord, in the year 1946 the same could not be said to be covered