Hidayatullah, J. - (1.)These are 38 appeals against the judgment and orders of the High Court of Orissa, dated November 28, 1956, by which 42 petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution filed by the present appellants and some others were dismissed. The High Court certified the cases as fit for appeal to this Court under Article 132 (1) of the Constitution.
(2.)The appellants are holders of presettlement minor inams in the State of Orissa. Their grants are different both in regard to the time when they were made and the lands involved in them. They were made for performance of services of deities and were classed as Devedayam grants in the revenue papers. The grants in all these cases were not of whole villages but of certain lands and hence their classification as minor inams, and they comprised both the melwaram and Kudiwaram rights in the lands. It is not necessary to refer to these cases separately, since a single argument was addressed before us involving the consideration whether Notification No. 4971XV-2154-E.A, dated July 15, l955, issued by the Orissa State Government, and the Orissa Estates Abolition Act, 1951 (Act 1 of 1952) as amended by the Orissa Estates Abolition (Amendment) Act, 1954 (Act XXVII of 1954) were respectively beyond the competence of the State and the Orissa State Legislature.
(3.)By the original Act, all estates of the intermediaries were abolished, and on a notification by the Government, such estates vested in Government. By the amending Act, the definition of "estate" was widened to cover even such minor inams, and then the impugned notification was issued. The appellants contend that the original Act and the amending Act were jointly or severally beyond the competence of the State Legislature, and that the notification above-mentioned was void and without any effect.