The Judgment of the Full Bench was delivered by S.Jagadeesan, J.:

1. The petitioners in all these writ petitions are the tenants in the properties belonging to the religious institutions, such as temple, mutt, mosque and church. The lands belonging to such religious institutions had been leased out to the petitioners herein with an option to construct the superstructure at their cost. The petitioners have put up the construction in such lands. In some cases, the religious institutions filed the suit for recovery of possession of the land and the suits had been decreed and the appeals are pending. In some cases, either suits are pending or no suit had been laid by the religious institutions for recovery of possession of the lands. In some cases, after finality of the decree, the proceedings are pending at the execution stage. Whenever the suits or appeals are pending, in most of the cases, the tenants have filed application under Sec.9 of the Madras City Tenants Protection Act, 1921 (hereinafter referred to as Act III of 1922). When such proceedings were pending the said Tamil Nadu Act III of 1922 was amended under the Madras City Tenants Protection (Amendment) Act, 1994 (