Khosla, J.

1. This pre-emption suit was originally filed in the Court of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Gurdaspur. One of the pleas raised in defence was that the Punjab Pre-emption Act is ultra vires the Constitution. The Advocate-General for the Punjab moved this Court with a prayer that the case be transferred to this Court and heard on the original side. In view of the importance of the question involved, Kapur J. ordered the case to be transferred to this Court. Subsequently many other cases were dealt with in the same manner and in all these cases the question for consideration is whether the Punjab Pre-emption Act is ultra vires the Constitution and therefore whether a suit for pre-emption is competent. It must be clearly understood that we are only called upon to give our decision on this law point and are not concerned with the merits of any individual case. We have heard counsel for both sides and have also heard the learned Advocate General, and we now proceed to give our decision.

2. The main line of attack is on behalf of the vendees, and the argument urged on their behalf is that the Punjab Pre-emption Act is ultra vires as its provisions contravene Article 19