( 1 ) THESE two appeals arise from two decrees passed by the learned Civil Judge (Senior Division) Surat on 30th of April 1957 in Special Jurisdiction Suit No. 26 of 1951 and Regular Civil Suit No. 1129 of 1952 by which the learned Judge dismissed the suits. We may briefly mention the facts which gave rise to the two suits. There is no dispute that the respondent Sardar Sajjadanashin Saiyed Mahomed Bakar-el-Edrus who is the common respondent in both the appeals is the Inamdar of the Village Orma situated in the district of Surat with which village we are concerned in these two appeals. There is also no dispute that the plaintiffs or their predecessors were at all material times the cultivators of various fields in the village. Originally the plaint which was presented in Special Civil Suit No. 26 of 1951 was signed by the plaintiffs thereof and the predecessor-in-title of the plaintiff of the second suit No. 1129 of 1952. However the latter died before the presentation of the suit in the Court. Therefore the second suit was brought by the heirs of that person in the Court of the learned Civil Judge at Olpad. Subsequently as common questions of law and fact arose in both the suits the suit in Olpad Court was transferred on 29th December 1952 to the Civil Court at Surat and both the suits were tried and disposed off together. In the Special Jurisdiction Suit the plaintiffs claimed a declaration that the defendant was not the owner of the suit lands and that the plaintiffs were the occupants thereof. In the alternative the plaintiffs therein claimed that they were permanent tenants of the suit fields. In the second suit the plaintiffs claimed an injunction only directing the defendant to recover assessment only from the plaintiffs and nothing more. Briefly speaking the contention of the plaintiffs in both the suits was that they were the occupants of the suit fields and that the defendant was only an Inamdar entitled to recover from them the land revenue. They alleged that the defendant was not an alienee of the soil but that he was an alienee only of the land revenue: that their predecessors-in-title were cultivating the lands long before the Inam grant was made in favour of the predecessor of the defendant and that consequently they had full rights as occupants of the suit lands even from before the time the Inam grant was made in favour of the predecessor of the defendant. It is a common ground that in or about 1923 plaintiffs or their predecessors were paying the defendant at a flat rate of Rs. 3-8-0 per bigha. Plaintiffs alleged that in or about 1923 the defendants predecessor demanded from them or their predecessors a payment at double the rate; that for this purpose the then Inamdar came to the village and gave a Hobsons choice to the cultivators. He called upon the cultivators either to sign a Kabuliyat agreeing to make payment at the rate of Rs. 7. 00 per bigha or to vacate the lands. The plaintiffs alleged that they or their predecessors submitted to the threat and coercion of the then Inamdar and executed a Kabuliyat as asked for; whereas some other cultivators of the village did not do so and vacated the lands. The plaintiffs further alleged that in or about 1940 or 1941 the lands which had been vacated by the previous cultivators were given for cultivation to some of the plaintiffs or their predecessors. They also alleged that in or about 1942 the defendant made them sign one document which was in the form of a rent-note. The plaintiffs alleged that the acts of the Inamdar in both the years 1923 and 1942 and the documents executed by them or their predecessors in those two years were vitiated by intimidation and coercion and did not create any rights in favour of the Inamdar. On these allegations the plaintiffs claimed the reliefs already set out.

( 2 ) THE defendant resisted both the suits on a number of grounds some of them of a technical nature. In respect of some of these defences preliminary iss