1. hese are 43 appeals (C. As. Nos. 143, 274, 309 and 203 to 242 of 1971), 40 appeals (C. As. Nos. 203 to 242 of 1971), being by the State of Kerala and the Land Board and the remaining three by some of the writ petitioners in the High Court. Most of the. material provisions of the amended Kerala Land Reforms Act, Act. No.1 of 1964 (hereinafter called the impugned Act) were challenged in the High Court as violative of Art.14, 19, 25, 26 and 31 of the Constitution. Quite a number of writ petitions, however, assailed the entire impugned Act on that score. The sole defence in sustaining the constitutional validity of the impugned Act was based on Art.31 A of the Constitution. The High Court struck down several provisions of the impugned Act. In the State appeals (C. As. Nos. 203 to 242 of 1971) the judgment of the High Court is questioned only in so far as it struck down S.73 and Explanation to S 85 (1) of the impugned Act. The judgment appealed from is reported as V. N. Narayanan Nair v. State of Kerala (1970 KLT. 659). Raman Nayar C.J., and Raghavan J., expressed their conclusions through the Chief Justice thus:

'In the result we declare the following provisions of the Ac