S.C. Manchanda, J. - (1.) This is a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution by the plaintiff-petitioners directed against the order of the Board of Revenue dated the 11th of August 1956 on the ground that the Board of Revenue had no jurisdiction to decide whether the petitioners were majors on the relevant date 9-4-1956 and in any event could not have come to any such conclusion without framing an issue as to the age of the petitioner and giving him an opportunity of being heard.
(2.) The facts leading up to this petition are these:-
(3.) The petitioners were the hereditary tenants of certain plots. Azimullah Khan died in 1344 F. at the time when the petitioners were minors and their mother Asghari Begum was managing the holdings as their guardian. The mother had entrusted the management of the plots to one Mohammad Sadiq who was her khandani uncle. The said Mohammad Sadiq was also the real brother of the zamindar Hashmat Ali Khan opposite party No. 14 to this petition. When the petitioners attained majority and wanted to realise the rent from the said tenants cultivating the plots it was discovered that Mohammad Sadiq got the names of the petitioners removed from the village papers and got his name entered as the tenant-in-chief over the plots. A suit was, therefore, filed under Section 59 read with Section 183 of the U.P. Tenancy Act by the petitioners against the opposite parties alleging that Azimullah Khan, father of the petitioner was the hereditary tenant of the land in dispute; that Mukhtar Ahmad petitioner No. 1 had become a major about 8 months prior to the filing of the suit. On demanding rent from sub-tenants they had denied the tenancy rights of the petitioners, it was then discovered that Mohammad Sadiq had fraudulently got the names of the petitioners removed from the village papers and had got his own name recorded as tenant-in-chief. The relief claimed was that they were the hereditary tenants and that the defendants , were liable to be ejected under Section 183 of the U.P. Tenancy Act. The suit was contested by the main defendants who claimed that they were in possession of the land in dispute as tenants-in-chief and that the tenancy rights of the plaintiffs in the suit plots was extinguished as a result of Smt. Asghari Begum having surrendered the plaintiffs tenancy rights on 24th June 1957 and the land had been let out thereafter to Mohammad Sadiq who was the hereditary tenant of the land.;