Sir John Beaumont.-

This is a consolidated appeal by special leave from a decision of the High Court of Judicature at Madras dated 30th July 1946. At the conclusion of the arguments their Lordships announced that they would humbly advise His Majesty that this appeal be dismissed with costs, and they now give their reasons.

2. The consolidated suits out of which this appeal arises were filed in the year 1939 by the respondents as ryots against the appellants as landowners in the Court of the Deputy Collector Salem, claiming a grant of pattas under S. 55, Madras Estates Land Act of 1908. The respondents claimed rights of permanent occupancy in the lands held by them in the village of Bairoji, District Salem, on the ground that such lands formed part of an estate as defined by the Madras Estates Land Act of 1908 as amended by the Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment) Act, 1936. The appellants denied that the lands formed part of an estate, and claimed that the said Acts had no application to the case.

3. By S. 3 (2) (d) of the Act of 1908 "Estate" is defined as meaning any village of which the land-revenue alone has been granted in inam to a person not owning the kudivaram thereof, provi