STATE OF VINDHYA PRADESH NOW MADHVA PRADESH BRIJINDAR SINGH Vs. MORADHWAJ SINGH CTO IN C AS NOS 40 TO 109 OF 1955 AND 2 THE STATE OF VINDHYA PRADESH NOW MADHYA PRADESH IN C A NO 110 OF 1955

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These seventy-one appeals on certificates granted by the Judicial Commissioner of Vindhya Pradesh arise out of seventy petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution filed before that Court challenging the constitutionality of the Vindhya Pradesh Abolition of Jagirs and Land Reforms Act, No. 11 of 1952, (hereinafter called the Act). They were disposed of by a common judgment by the Judicial Commissioner. We shall also dispose of these appeals by a common judgment. Seventy (Nos. 40 to 109), out of these appeals, are by the State of Vindhya Pradesh (now Madhya Pradesh) while one (No. 110) is by Brijindar Singh, a jagirdar.

(2.) The case of the petitioners in the Court of the Judicial Commissioner was that the Act was unconstitutional as various provisions in it placed an unreasonable restriction on the exercise of the fundamental rights guaranteed to the petitioners under Part III of the Constitution. The Judicial Commissioner held that the Act was constitutional, except for three provisions thereof, namely, S. 22(1), S. 37 and cl. 4(e) of the Schedule to the Act. The seventy appeals by the State are with respect to this part of the order declaring these three provisions unconstitutional. The appeal of Brijindar Singh is against that part of the order by which the rest of the Act was held constitutional.

(3.) We shall first deal with the appeal of Brijindar Singh. Learned counsel for Brijindar Singh was unable - and in our opinion rightly - to challenge the constitutionality of the Act as a whole in view of Art. 31-A of the Constitution and the decisions of this Court in State of Bihar vs. Kameshwar Singh, (1952) SCR 889 , Visweshwar Rao vs. State of Madhya Pradesh, (1952) SCR 1020 , Raja Suriya Pal Singh vs. State of U. P.,(1952) SCR 1056 , Gajapati Narayan Deo vs. State of Orissa, (1954) SCR 1 , Thakur Amar Singhji vs. State of Rajasthan, (1955) 2 SCR 303, Bhairebendra Narayan Bhup vs. State of Assam, (1956) SCR 303 ., Sri Ram Ram Narain vs. State of Bombay, AIR 1959 SC 459, Raghbir Singh vs. State of Ajmer, AIR 1959 SC 475, and Atma Ram vs. State of Punjab, AIR 1959 SC 475, and Atma Ram vs. State of Punjab, AIR 1959 SC 519, relating to similar legislation in the States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Assam, Bombay, Ajmer and Punjab. It is not necessary therefore to examine the provisions of the Act in detail. In the circumstances, Appeal No. 110 is dismissed; but as it was not pressed we think it right that the parties should bear their own costs of this appeal.