PARASHRAM DAMODHAR VAIDYA Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, a resident of village Pali in the district of Thana, is a landlord owning 135 acres of Kharif lands and 70 acres of Warkas lands in the villages of Bhusegaib, Tighar, Nangurle, Venagaon, Parada, Dahigaon, Sapele, Vave, Vavaloli, Tambus and Avalas in Karjat Taluka of Kolaba district. The petitioner pay Rs. 990/-as assessment and local fund cess for the aforesaid lands. In this application the petitioner contents that Bombay Act 13 of 1956, which purports to amend the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act. 1948, is invalid. The petitioner urges that when Bill No. 34 of 1955, which subsequently was published as Act 13 of 1956, was submitted to the President for his assent, the President suggested certain alterations, but the bill was not returned to the Legislature of the State of Bombay and was published as an Act: and as the provisions of Art. 201 of the Constitution of India were contravened the Bill was not validly enacted as law. He also contends that the Bombay State Legislature was incompetent to enact Act 13 of 1956, and submits that in any event Sections 5, 6, 6a, 7, 8, 9, 17a, 29a, 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d, 32 to 32r, 34, 63a and 84c are inconsistent with the Constitution and hence void. It is finally urged that Sections 7, 32h (2) and 88d delegate legislative authority to the Government and are on that score void.

(2.) IN order to appreciate the contentions raised by the petitioner, it may be necessary to give a short resume of the agrarian legislation enacted by the Legislature of the Bombay State since the year 1938. In 1038 the Bombay Legislature passed the Bombay Small Holders Relief Act 8 of 1938 with the object of giving protection to agricultural debtors against execute on of decrees passed against them and also to tenants against eviction by landlords. The Act also plated restrictions upon transfers by small holders of their lands and dwelling houses and provided for suspension of rent and payment of interest in case land revenue was suspended wholly or partially.

(3.) IN 1939 the Bombay Legislature passed the Bombay Tenancy Act which conferred protection upon tenants against eviction by landlords and converted all subsisting contractual tenancies for less than ten years into tenancies of a duration of ten years. The Legislature restricted the rights of the landlords to obtain passes on of land by surrender, and conferred upon all persons who had been continuously in possession of land for six years preceding the 1st of January, 1938, and had cultivated the land personally, the status of protected tenants even if they had been evicted after 1-4-1937. The Act also provided that the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, fix minimum rates of rent payable by the tenants in any areas specified in the notification and provided a bar to eviction of tenants from dwelling houses and conferred a first option of purchasing the site on which the 'tenant had built a building and also the trees planted by the tenant.