JUDGMENT :- The petitioner in this case is a cultivator and he was cultivating land admeasuring 3 acres and 8 gunthas in Rampara village in Rajula Mahal of Amreli District. This land belonged to original opponents Nos. 1 and 2, who were the Barkhalidars in respect of this plot of land. The contention of the petitioner is that the Barkhalidars had leased the land in question to the petitioner and the transaction was effected by a document, dated June 28, 1951 and the transaction was referred to in the document as that of "Ogha-Chhut". Under the Barkhali Abolition Act, 1951 enacted by the then Saurashtra Government, provision was made not giving occupancy rights to tenants. The word "tenant" was defined to include all persons lawfully cultivating the land but excluded from its purview a person who was a mortgagee-with-possession. Under the provisions of the Barkhali Abolition Act, the petitioner applied for an occupancy certificate in the prescribed form. This application was decided in the first instance by the Mahalkari at Rajula. The Mahalkari interpreted this document to be a mortgage-deed and decided that the petitioner was not a tenant and dismissed the application for occupanc

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