Ayyangar, J. - (1.) These appeals are before us by virtue of certificates granted by the High Court under Art, 133(1)(c) of the Constitution and they raise for consideration the question of the proper construction of S. 5(aa) of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 (West Bengal Act I of 1954) as amended by West Bengal Act XXV of 1957.
(2.) The relevant facts in these our appeals are analogous and they raise the common question of law which we have already indicated. For the disposal of these appeals it is sufficient therefore to refer to the facts of any one of them. We propose to set out those of Civil Appeal 781 of 1963.
(3.) The Zamindar of Simlapal in the Collectorate of Bankura entered into a contract with the appellant - Ram Kissen Singh and, by a document dated September 3, 1946, granted him the right to cut the trees in certain demarcated areas of certain forests of the Zamindari on payment of a sum of Rs. 7131.50. Under the terms of the said document the period during which the appellant was given this right to cut trees was to end on April 14, 1955. The appellant started the cutting operations and cut only for the first few years, but thereafter action was taken by the Forest Officers of the State to prevent him from further cutting under the powers vested in them by the West Bengal Private Forests Act, 1948. Thereupon the appellant filed a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution for a writ of certiorari for quashing the orders passed against him and also for an injunction restraining the Forests Officers from taking delivery of possession and from cutting and disposing of the forests covered by his agreement. By the time the petition was filed the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 (Act I of 1954) (hereafter referred to as the Act) had been passed and in the counter-affidavit which was filed to this petition reliance was placed upon its provisions for contending that the "estate" belonging to the Zamindar in which the forest lay as well as all the rights to the trees therein to whomsoever belonging had vested in the State under Section 5 of the Act by reason of a notification issued by the State Government under Section 4. By the date the writ petition came to be heard the West Bengal Legislature had, in view of certain decisions rendered by the Calcutta High Court which held that the terms of S. 5 of the Act which specified the property or interest in property which would vest in the Government did not include the right to cut trees in a forest which had been granted to a third person by the proprietor or intermediary before the date of the vesting, amended the said vesting section by introducing S. 5(aa) to have retrospective effect from the date of the commencement of the principal Act. Section 5(aa) read: "5. Upon the due publication of a notification under S. 4, on and from the date of vesting- (aa) all lands in any estate comprised in a forest together with all rights to the trees therein or to the produce thereof and held by an intermediary or any other person shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any judgment, decree or order of any court or Tribunal, vest in the State;" After this amendment was brought to the notice of the Court the petitioner was allowed to amend his writ petition by adding allegations (a) regarding the construction of the said section, and (b) its constitutional validity. The petition then came on for hearing in December, 1958 and the learned, Single Judge, by his judgment dated December 24, 1958 discharged the rule following certain earlier decisions of his on the same point. An appeal filed to the Division Bench under the Letters Patent was also dismissed but the learned Judges granted a certificate under Art. 133(1)(c) and that is how the appeal is before us.;