Venkatarama Ayyar, J.-

This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for issuing a writ of certiorari or other appropriate writ to quash an order of the State of Madras, dated 13th March, 1951. The second respondent is the Rajah of Ramanathapuram, whose zamindari was one of the estates permanently settled under Regulation XXV of 1802. On 1st July, 1946, he granted a lease to the petitioners of the right to fish chanks in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay opposite the coast of the zamindari for a period of ten years on an annual rent of Rs.14,000. The Legislature of the Province of Madras passed the Madras Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act (XXVI of 1948), hereinafter referred to as the Act, abolishing the estates within the State of Madras and the Ramanathapuram zamindari was notified in accordance with the provisions of that Act, on 7th September, 1949, and the result of that Notification was that under section 3 of the Act the entire zamindari vested in the State of Madras. Acting under section 20 of the said Act, the State of Madras terminated by its proceedings dated 3rd March, 1951, the lease in favour of the petitioners dated 1st July, 1946, and sent

Click Here to Read the rest of this document