( 1 ) THIS Common Judgment will dispose of all the companion writ petitions, for the question involved is common between the parties. The respondent in the respective writ petition claim to be permanent tenants in respect of the land occupied by them, which were originally Inam land of Class V. Inam was abolished and the land came to be regranted to the predecessor of the petitioner prior to Tillers' Day, i. e. 1st April, 1957. In other words, the predecessor of the petitioner, Smt. Saraswatibai wife of Kedarrao ghadage, was the occupant landlady of suit land and was widow on the Tillers' day, who, later on, died in the year, 1975. As the predecessor of the petitioner was widow on the Tillers' Day, the proceedings in respect of the suit lands under section 32g of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act")* which had commenced before the A. L. T.-1, tasgaon, were postponed on 8th May, 1961. Accordingly, after the death of predecessor of the petitioner, the landlady, proceedings under section 32f of the act were commenced. The Additional Tahsildar and A. L. T.-l, Tasgaon, by his judgment and order dated 31st May, 1982 took the view that the respondents- tenants had failed to exercise right of purchase within the specified time by giving notice to the landlady in terms of section 32f of the Act, for which reason, sale of suit lands in their favour had become ineffective. This view found favour with the appellate authority, where the respondent in the respective writ petitions, had preferred appeals, before the Sub-Divisional Officer. The appellate authority dismissed the appeals preferred by the said respondents by common judgment dated 25th November, 1983. Against this decision, the respondent in the respective writ petitions preferred revision application before the Maharashtra revenue Tribunal, which was, however, allowed by judgment and order dated 30th April, 1985 by the Tribunal. The Tribunal, in substance, held that section 32f of the Act has no application to the case on hand. It has found that as the respondent in the respective writ petitions were permanent tenants in the suit lands, they would become purchasers on the Tillers' Day, i. e. 1st April, 1957 irrespective of whether the landlady was widow on the relevant date. It is held that section 32f of the Act applies only in cases where the landlord/landlady is entitled to terminate the tenancy under section 31 of the Act. Insofar as the permanent tenants are concerned, section 31 of the Act cannot be invoked by the landlord or the landlady, as the case be, in view of express provision to exclude the application of section 31 to such tenants (permanent tenants ). Accordingly, the Tribunal found that as section 32f of the Act has no application, the fact that the respondents had failed to send intimation to the landlord within the specified time as provided in the said provision will make no difference. On the other hand, the respondents will have to be held to have become deemed purchasers on the Tillers' Day, 1st April, 1957, by virtue of section 32 of the Act. Taking this view of the matter, the Tribunal, while allowing the revision application and setting aside the orders passed by the two Courts below, remanded the matter to the trial Court for fixing purchase price of the suit lands under section 32g of the act as on 1st April, 1957. This decision is the subject-matter of challenge in the present petitions.

( 2 ) THE core issue that needs to be addressed in the present matter is : whether section 32f of the Act has application to lands held by permanent tenants.

( 3 ) THESE petitions were originally filed by Mr. D. R. Ajgaonkar, Advocate, on instructions of the High Court Legal Services Committee, Mumbai. When the petitions were taken up for hearing on June 8, 2004, Mr. Ajgaonkar informed that he has conveyed his inability to appear in the matters to the High Court Legal services Committee as back as in 2000,