The appellants are plaintiffs a to 5 in a suit before the learned Subordinate Judge of Devakottai for a declaration that the suit village was not an Inam estate within the definition of Act XXVI of 1948 and section 3 (a) (d) of the Madras Estates Land Act, that Act XXX of 1947 did not apply to it, and that the relevant Notifications of the State Government applying the two Acts to the village were illegal.

The learned Subordinate Judge held that the suit was not maintainable and he pointed out that under section 9 (4) (c) of Act XXVI of 1948, the decision of the Tribunal upon the issue in the suit was final, and not liable to be challenged in a Court of law. The arguments addressed before us resolved themselves into the following proposition. Though it may be indisputable that the decisions of the relevant Tribunals established under Act XXVI of 1948 and Act XXX of 1947 are conclusive upon the question that the village is an Inam estate within the meaning of section 3 (a) (d) of the Madras Estates Land Act, nevertheless, owing to the peculiar feature of this case that the Tribunal constituted under the statute first gave one decision, without the ryots as partie