1. These appeals raise a number of questions of importance to landholders and ryots in the Madras Presidency. The appellant is the Zamindar of Sivaganga, which is one of the important Zamindaries of Southern India. Before 1922 it was the custom of the tenants to pay their rent in kind, but in that year the Court of Wards, which was then in charge of the estate, formulated a scheme for the permanent commutation of rent in kind to re at in money. The scheme provided for the tenants signifying their acceptance in writing of the proposal and for the ? exchange of pattas and muchilikas drawn up on the new basis. At the time the scheme was viewed with favour by the tenants. Practically all of them signed consent statements and many of them accepted pattas which stipulated for the payment of the rent in money, but owing to the large number of tenants it was not possible to complete the arrangement by the issue of pattas to all of them while grain prices remained stable, and some tenants refused to accept the pattas tendered when their turns came, because prices had fallen. In 1928 the appellant filed a number of suits for the recovery of money rents on the footing that there had b