The petitioner challenges the constitutional validity of the Madras Cultivating Tenants Protection Act, 1955, as amended by Madras Act XIV of 1956 and the Madras Cultivating Tenants (Payment of Fair Rent) Act (Madras Act XXIV of 1956), in so far as the enactments affect the petitioner’s right under the ‘waram’ agreement entered into between him and the first respondent in 1955. Although the Madras Cultivating Tenants (Payment of Fair Rent) Act, 1956, is alone specified in the petition, the scope of the challenge was, with the consent of the learned Advocate-General, widened at the hearing so as to extend to the other two enactments as well, in so far as they affect the petitioner’s rights under the said ‘waram’ agreement. All the three enactments will for convenience be referred to as the impugned enactments.

The first respondent (hereinafter referred to as the respondent) filed a Petition — No. 1096 of 1957 — in the Rent Court at Mayuram in the Tanjore District praying that the fair rent payable by him to the petitioner be fixed under section 9 of the Madras Cultivating Tenants (Payment of Fair Rent) Act. The petitioner appeared before the Rent Court and alleged th