(1.) This appeal by special leave arises from a judgment rendered by the Gujarat High Court in Special Civil Application No. 542 of 1964 filed by the present respondent No. 1 against the present appellant contending that the land involved in the dispute is not exempt from the operation of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 ('Tenancy Act' for short).
(2.) A brief recital of the facts will put the point of law raised herein in proper perspective. Appellant is the owner of Survey No. 165 measuring 2 acres 21 gunthas situated in Village Acher City Taluka, District Ahmedabad. Respondent is and has been the tenant of this land since before 1946. He became a protected tenant under the Bombay Tenancy Act, 1939 and his name appeared in the Register of protected tenants maintained under that Act. On the introduction of the Tenancy Act of 1948 the respondent continued to be the protected tenant under it. A very comprehensive amendment was made in the Tenancy Act of 1948 by the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Amendment) Act, 1956 (Bombay Act XIII of 1956) (' 1956 Act' for short). Sec. 32 as amended by 1956 Act provided for transfer of ownership of the land from a landlord to the tenant of the land by operation of Jaw. The day was styled as 'tiller's day' and sec. 32 provided that subject to the other provisions of the section and provisions of the next succeeding section every tenant shall be deemed to have purchased from his landlord free from all encumbrances subsisting thereon on the said day, the land held by him as tenant. The land involved in this appeal was one to which the Tenancy Act of 1948 as amended by the Amending Act of 1956 applied and by the operation of law the tenant, the respondent, claimed to be the owner of the land.
(3.) Sec. 88 of the Tenancy Act of 1948 as it stood at the relevant time provided for exemption of certain lands from its provisions, one such exemption being in respect of any area which the State Government may, by notification in the official gazette, specify as being reserved for urban non-agricultural or industrial development. Armed with this power the Government issued Notification No. TNC/5156/101955-F dated 9th August 1956 whereby amongst others the Government specified the area within the limits of the Municipal Corporations of the cities of Poona and Ahmedabad as being reserved for urban non-agricultural and industrial development. This Notification was superseded by another Notification No* TNC. 5156/169426-M dated 14ih Feb. 1957 whereby the Government specified amongst others the areas within the limits of the Municipal Corporations of the Cities of Poona and Ahmedabad as being reserved for the above-mentioned purpose. Neither of (he Notifications at the date of issue had any relevance to the land involved in this appeal because it was not situated within the area of the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad.