( 1 ) THESE rules, arising under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, have been referred by the Chief Justice to the Special Division Bench as at present constituted for disposal, under Rule 1 (ii), Chapter II of the Appellate Side Rules, primarily on the requisition of a Division Bench for considering inter alia the vires of Section 5-A of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 (West Bengal Act I of 1954 ).

( 2 ) MR. Ranjit Kumar Banerjee, learned Advocate appearing for the petitioners in C. R. Nos. 2190-93 of 1961, submitted, as the hearing commenced, that the present reference to the Special Bench was not a proper reference, as the Bench hearing these rules had taken a view different from the view taken earlier by Division Bench in Ambujakhya Mukherjee v. State of West Bengal, TLR (1966) 1 Cal 495 and accordingly the reference should have been made to a Full Bench. He referred to the decision in Mahadeolal Kanodia v. Administrator General of West Bengal, in which it was observed:"if one thing is more necessary in law than any other thing, it is the quality of certainty. . . . . . . . . . If one Division Bench of a High Court is unable to disti