Judgment Shrimal, J.-These five appeals arise out of the same judgment and common questions of law are involved in them, as such they are being disposed of by a common judgment.

2. After the arguments were closed by both the parties and the judgment was being dictated, Mr. J.P. Joshi intervened and prayed for hearing. He states that he has a right to be heard, because the decision of these cases is likely to affect the interests of his client Maharaja Gaj Singh whose writ petition was also decided by the impugned judgment. He was, therefore, heard at length.

3. TheRajasthan Land Reforms and Acquisition of Land Owners’ Estates Act, 1963 (Act No. 11 of 1964) (to be referred to hereinafter as ‘the Act’) received the assent of the president on the 6th day of April, 1964 and was published in the Rajasthan Gazette, Part IV-A, Extraordinary dated April 13, 1964. It was passed in furtherance of the directive principles of State policy as embodied in Article 39 of the Constitution of India and in particular, Clauses (b) and (c) thereof , namely, that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good and that the operation of the economic system did not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment. The Act sought to achieve this by acquiring landowners’ estates in the State and distributing the same to the landless and other persons. This was attempted to be brought about by promulgating the Act.

4. The Scheme of the Act in a nutshell is that by Chapter II of the Act containing Sections 3 to 5 every estate was made liable to the payment of land revenue to the Government as from the 1st day of April, 1963. By Chapter III it made provision for acquiring Khatedari rights by all those persons who were recorded as tenants or tenants of Khudkasht. The estate holders were also declared Khatedar tenants. Chapter IV of the Act deals with acquisition of the estates. It vested a discretion in the Government to issue notification in the official Gazette appointing date for acquisition of landowners’ estate in the State and for their vesting in the State Government. A Notification dated August 11, 1964 to that effect was published in the Rajasthan Gazette Part IV-C Ordinary dated August 13, 1964, which reads as under:-“In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 7 of the Rajasthan Land Reforms and Acquisition of Landowners’ Estates Act, 1963 (Rajasthan Act 11 of 1964) the State Government hereby appoints the 1st day of September, 1964 as the date for the acquisition and vesting in the State Government of the estates of all landowners situated anywhere in Rajasthan.” Under this notification the estate of the landowners stood vested in the State Government. Chapter V provides for the liability of the State Government to pay the compensation and Chapter VI provides the method of determination of compensation as well as the payment. Chapter VIII deals with delegation of powers to various officers to discharge the functions provided under the Act. The Schedule deals with principles governing determination of compensation payable to the landowner.

5. The Act was challenged by various writ petitions filed in this Court on the ground that its provisions violated Articles 14, 19 (1) (f) and 31 of the Constitution of India. A single Bench of this Court held that Chapters IV, VI and the Schedule to the Act, were ultra vires and violative of Articles 14 and 31 of the Constitution of India and any action taken under the Act to acquire the land will be deemed to be taken under the Act, which was not enforceable.

6. Being aggrieved with the declaration of Chapters IV and VI and the Schedule to the Act as void, the State Government has come up in appeal by filing special appeals Nos. 10, 15 and 17 of 1970, whereas H.H. Brijraj Singh and H.H. Maharaja Col. Bhawani Singh have come up in appeals against the same judgment, for getting the entire Act dec

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