JUDGMENT

Srinivasa Varadachariar, J. - These two appeals have been preferred by certain mortgagees, challenging the correctness of the judgment of a Special Bench of the Lahore High Court which held that the Punjab Restitution of Mortgaged Lands Act (Punjab Act No. IV of 1938) was intra vires the Provincial Legislature. The suits out of which the appeals arise were instituted in a subordinate Court in the Province; but, before they came" on for trial in the ordinary course, they were, on the application of the mortgagees-Plaintiffs, transferred to the High Court by a special order of the Court, on the ground that they involved an important and difficult point of law, namely, "whether the Restitution of Mortgages Act is ultra vires or intra vires of the Punjab Legislature". In the High Court, the Punjab Government applied to be impleaded as a party to the suits, on the ground that it was interested in the decision of the question involved. It was accordingly impleaded as a Defendant "subject to just exceptions", and is thus a party Respondent in the appeals before this Court, though in the Memorandum of Appeal it is the Advocate-General of the Punjab who is stated to be the Responden