This group of cases and those which immediately follow necessitate a consideration of the principle upon which the respective jurisdictions of the Federal and Provincial Legislatures in India are to be delimited and of the method to be adopted in determining the subjects which are to be dealt with by the one or the other under the provisions of sections 99 and 100 of the Government’ of India Act, 1935, and the three lists set out in the Seventh Schedule thereto.

The question immediately in dispute is as to the validity of the Bengal Money-Lenders Act, 1940. By way of introduction it is enough to say that that Act limits the amount recoverable by a money-lender on his loans for principal and interest and prohibits the payment of sums larger than those permitted by the Act.

The Respondents are an incorporated body to which by an order of the 12th May, 1941, passed by the High Court of Calcutta under section 153-A of the Indian Companies Act, the assets of the Khulna Loan Bank, Ltd. (earlier known as the Khulna Loan Coy., Ltd.) were transferred.

Some of the cases now under appeal to their Lordships’ Board were brought by the Respondents who claimed to recover loans and inter