LEKSHMIKUTTY NEITHIAR Vs. AMMU & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE petitions question the validity of the explanation to Section 4(a) of the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929. That Explanation was added by Section 2 of the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1956. The Act received the assent of the President on the 27th October 1956. The Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929, had been amended earlier, by Act XXXIII of 1951 and Act VII of 1954. The preamble to the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1956, states the reason for the enactment as follows:

(2.) SECTION 4(a), after the amendment of 1956, is in the following terms:

(3.) THE decision was rendered on the 3rd November 1955 and it was subsequently that the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1956, was passed and the explanation added to section 4 of the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929. The question with which we are now concerned is hence not whether a rule is ultra vires of the Act under which it was framed but whether a section of the Act is ultra vires of the Constitution. We take the view that Article 31 A of the Constitution provides an effective answer to the petitioners contention that the Explanation is ultra vires of the Constitution.