JUDGMENT - Tarkunde, J.

1. These two petitions under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution seek to challenge the constitutional validity of Section 18(2)(b)(ii) of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961.

2. The petitioner in Special Civil Application No. 2066 of 1966 comes from Sind which now forms part of West Pakistan. He claims that his grand-father and his father were well known physicians practising Ayurvedic and Unani Systems of Medicine, After the partition of the country, the family migrated to Hurni camp at Baroda. The petitioner says that he started an independent dispensary at Baroda for practice in Unani and Ayurvedic Systems of Medicine and that he was practising in Baroda from 1950 to 1954. In 1954 he shifted to Ulhasnagar near Bombay, where he has been practising since then. After the passing of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961, he applied to the Board of Ayurvedic and Unani Systems of Medicine set up by the Act for inclusion of his name in the list maintained under Section 18 thereof. Section 18(2) (b)(ii) of the Act requires that the applicant should satisfy the Committee of the Board "that on the 4th November 1951 he was regularly practisi

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