MEGH RAJ Vs. ALLAH RAKHIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from a judgment of the Federal Court of India, dismissing an appeal from the full bench of the High Court at Lahore, whose decision had been in favour of the respondents. The appellants have thus failed before both Courts in India.

(2.) THE question is whether a certain Act of the Punjab Legislature, Punjab Act IV of 1938, entitled the Punjab Restitution of Mortgaged Lands Act, is void as being ultra vires of the Punjab Legislature. THE action was commenced by the appellants as mortgagees claiming a declaration that they were mortgagees in possession of certain lands therein specified and that the defendants were not entitled to redeem without payment of the mortgage debt due under the mortgage deeds, and also an injunction to restrain the defendants as mortgagors from prosecuting their petition for redemption of the lands in the Court of the Collector under the Punjab Act IV of 1988 (hereinafter called the impugned Act) and for restitution of the lands under the provisions of the Act.

(3.) THE item in the Provincial List which is directly relevant is No.21, which is in these terms - Land, that is to say, rights in or over land, land tenures, including the relation of landlord and tenant, and the collection of rents; transfer, alienation and devolution of agricultural land; land improvement and agricultural loans; colonisation; Courts of Wards; encumbered and attached estates; treasure trove.