M ALAGIRISAMY PILLAI S SETHU Vs. SPECIAL DEPUTY COLLECTOR REVENUE COURT TIRUCHIRAPALLI:SPECIAL DEPUTY COLLECTOR TIRUCHIRAPALLI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are aggrieved by the judgment of the Madras High Court upholding the validity of Section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants (Protection from Eviction) Act, 1976 (Act 36 of 1976). This Act published in the Gazette dated 30th August, 1976, came into force on 16th day of January, 1975.

(2.) Section 7 of the Act provided that any cultivating tenant who had been evicted from any land on or after the 16th day of January, 1975 but before the date of the publication of this Act in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, on the ground that such cultivating tenant was in arrear with respect to the rent payable to the landlord shall, on application to the Revenue Divisional Officer within a period of three months after the date of such publication, be entitled to be restored to possession of such land and to hold it with all the rights and subject to all the liabilities of a cultivating tenant under the Tenants Protection Act. Under the proviso to Section 7, the application may be received after the period of three months as aforesaid but before the expiry of the Act, if the applicant satisfies the Revenue Divisional Officer that he had sufficient cause for not making the application within the said period of three months.

(3.) Some of the 'respondents, who were tenants, had been dispossessed in pursuance to the order of eviction after 16-1-1975 and before the publication of the Act. Their applications under Section 7 had been allowed. The appellant, therefore, filed writ petitions before the High Court challenging the validity of the enactment and the legality of the proceedings that followed.