Palekar, J. - (1.) These Civil Appeals by certificate arise out of 23 Writ Petitions filed by owners of lands and buildings within the Municipal limits of the City of Ahmedabad. The petitioners challenged section 212 and some other allied sections of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, (hereinafter called the Corporations Act, 1949, (hereinafter called the Corporations Act) and prayed for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the Municipal Corporation of the City of Ahmedabad to treat the notice or notices issued to them under section 212 of the Corporations Act as null and void and further directing the Municipal authorities not to act upon the same or in furtherance of the said notice or notices. Besides the Municipal Corporation, the Municipal Commissioners were also made parties to the petitions. Since the validity of the provisions of the Corporations Act was challenged the State of Gujarat was also made a respondent. All the writ petitions raised the same questions and, therefore, the High Court of Gujarat disposed of all the petitions by a common judgment. As the decision was against the Municipal authorities, they have now come in appeal.
(2.) For the purposes of disposal of these appeals it would be sufficient to refer to the allegations made in Special Civil Application No. 1454/1965 which is the subject matter of appeal in Civil Appeal No. 135/1968 before us. The petitioner Girdharlal Ganpatram was the owner of Survey Nos. 4222, 4223, 4224/A-B-C and 4225/A-B of Jamalpur, Ward No. 2 Ahmedabad. On these survey numbers there is a building belonging to Girdharlal, on the ground floor of which there are shops occupied by Girdharlal and his tenants.
(3.) The Corporations Act being Act No. LIX/1949 was enacted on December 29, 1949 and came into force on July 1, 1951. By this Act, the previous statute namely the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925 was repealed.;