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