JUDGMENT

Asok Kumar Ganguly, J.—

1. These appeals are directed against the judgment dated 17.4.2000 of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla whereby the Division Bench of the High Court disposed of C.W.P. No.851/96 alongwith C.W.P. No.1192/96, as common questions of law and facts arose in those cases.

C.W.P. No. 851/96 was filed by Narain Singh while C.W.P. No.1192/96 was filed by three persons namely Shri Surat Singh, Shiv Singh Tegta and Murki Lal and in both the writ petitions, the respondents were the same

2. In both these cases, the constitutional validity of the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1996 (hereinafter called ‘the amendment Act’) was challenged as being in conflict with the original provisions of the various sections of the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1953 (Act No.6 of 1954) (hereinafter called ‘the Principal Act’).

3. It was also contended in the writ petition that the amendment is violative of the basic structure of the Constitution.

4. The petitioners of C.W.P. No. 1192/96 and six other land owners of Tehsil Rohru and Chirgaon, District Shimla had earlier filed a C.W.P. No.206 of 1998 titled as Thakur Gyan Singh and oth