A law that gives effect to the policy of the State towards securing the principles specified in clauses (b) and (c) of Article 39 of the Constitution is protected from attack under Articles 14, 19, and 31 of the Constitution by Article 31-A.

Bal Raj Tuli, J.

1. A number of writ petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the various provisions of the Punjab Land Reforms Act, 1973(hereinafter referred to as the Act). The Act received the assent of the President of India on March 24, 1973, and was published in the Punjab Govt. Gazette under notification No. 12-Leg/73 dated April 2, 1973, from which date it came into force. It is not necessary to state the facts of any case because all these cases (C. W. Nos. 3145, 3150, 3210, 3254, 3287, 3288, 3293, 3456 to 3463, 3469, 3470, 3472, 3503, 3547 to 3550, 3564 to 3568, 3629 and 4004 of 1973) will be decided on merits by a learned Single Judge in the light of the decisions rendered in this judgment.

2. The sections of the Act which have been challenged as ultra vires are Section 4, Section 5 and the definitions of family and person in Section 3(4) and (10). These sections read as under:-

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"4(1). Subject to t he provisions of Section 5, no person shall own or hold land as landowner or mortgagee with possession of tenant or partly in one capacity and partly in another in excess of the permissible area.

(2) Permissible area shall mean in respect of- (a) land under assured irrigation and capable of yielding at least two crops in a year (hereinafter in this Act refereed to as the first quality land), seven hectares; or

(b) land under assured irrigation for only one crop in year, eleven hectares; or

(c) barani land, 20.5 hectares; or

(d) land of other classes including banjar land, an area to be determined according to the prescribed scale with reference to the intensity of irrigation, productivity and soil classification of such classes, having regard to the respective valuation and the permissible area of the classes of land mentioned at (a), (b) and (c) above, subject to the condition that the area so determined shall not exceed 21.8 hectares, Provided that- (i) where land consists of two or more classes, the permissible area shall be determined on the basis of relative valuation of such classes of land, subject to the condition that it does not exceed 21.8 hectares;

(ii) where the number of members of a family exceeds five, the permissible area shall be increased by one-fifth of the permissible area for each member in excess of five, subject to the condition that additional land shall be allowed for not more than three such members.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), where any land is comprised in an orchard on the appointed day, such land shall, for the purpose of determining the permissible area, be treated as barani land.

(4)(a) Where a person is a member of a registered co-operative farming society, his share in the land held by such society together with his other land, if any, or if such person is a member of a family, together with the land held by every member of the family shall be taken into account for determining the permissible area; (b) where a person is a member of family, the land held by such person together with the land held by every other member of the family, whether individually or jointly, shall be taken into account for determining the permissible area.

(5) In determining the permissible area, any land which was transferred by sale, gift or otherwise, other than a bona fide sale or transfer, after the appointed day but before the commencement of this Act, shall be taken into account as if such land had not been transferred and the onus of proving the transfer as bona fide shall be on the transferor.

(6) For the purpose of valuation of land one and quarter hectares of banjar land shall be treated as equivalent in value to one hectare of barani land.

(7) For evaluating the land of any person at any time under this Act, the land owned by him immediately before the commencement of this Act as well as the land acquired by him after such commencement by inheritance, bequest of gift from a person to whom he is an heir shall be evaluated as if the eva