Judgment

Kirpal, J.-‘Lex injusta non est lex’, unjust laws are not laws, is what is being contended by the landlords in their challenge in these appeals, and the connected writ petitions, to the validity of the relevant provisions of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Bombay Rent Act’) in so far as it provides that landlords cannot charge rent in excess of the standard rent.

2. The appellants are landlords or their representatives of different premises in Bombay which have been given on rent to various tenants. They had filed in the High Court of Bombay writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 5 (10)(B), Section 11(1) and Section 12(3) of the Bombay Rent Act, inter alia, on the ground that the said provisions pertaining to standard rent were ultra vires Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and consequently void. The main challenge to the said provisions was on the ground that the restriction on the right of the landlords to increase rents, which had been frozen as on 1st September, 1940 or at the time of the first letting, was no longer a reasonable restriction and the said provi­sions h