SHARMA, J. - (1.) THESE are 105 petitions filed by various State grantees and cultivators of the territories included in the former Jaipur State, which have now been included in the Districts of Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Sawai Madho-pur, Sikar and Tonk of the present State of Rajasthan. In the year 1947 the then Jaipur State passed an Act known as the Jaipur District Boards Act, 1947 (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act ). This Act came into force on the 3rd October, 1947.
(2.) SEC. 3 of the Act provided as follows: - " (3) (i) There shall be one Board for every district or any area which the Government may, by notification in the Jaipur Gazette, declare. The jurisdiction of the Board shall not extend to Town Municipalities. (ii) Every Board shall be a body corporate by the name of "the (name of district) district board" and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal and shall be vested with the capacity of suing and being sued in its corporate name, of acquiring, holding and transferring property moveable or immovable, and of entering into contracts. " Under sec. 4 of the Act every Board was to consist of (a) elected members and (b) such persons as might be nominated by the Government. It was also provided in the said section that the number of elected members was not to be less than two-thirds of the whole Board. On 4th October, 1948 while the erstwhile Jaipur State was still in existence an amendment was passed by which a new section (Sec. 4-A) was added to the Act and it ran as follows : - "4-A (1) The Government may, pending the formation of a Board under sec. 4, constitute provisionally for any area a Board consisting wholly of members nominated by the Government. " (2) The term of a Board constituted under sub-sec. (1) shall be two years or until a Board consisting of both elected and nominated members is formed under sec. 5, whichever period may be less. " By sec. 2 (6) of the Amendment Act which will hereinafter be referred to as the First Amendment Act "district" was defined as fellows: - "district" means a district constituted under secs. 18 and 19 of the Jaipur Land Revenue Act, 1947, and includes any area which the Government may, by notification in the Jaipur Raj Patra declare to be a district for the purposes of this Act, but does not include any portion thereof which is a municipality under the Jaipur State Town Municipalities Act, 1943, or the City of Jaipur Municipal Act, 1943. " 1. Sawai Jaipur. 2. Sawai Madhopur. 3. Jhunjhunu. 4. Malpura. In accordance with the Act four District Boards were constituted, one for each of the following District of the then Jaipur State: - After the merger of the then Jaipur State with the present State of Rajasthan, the District of Malpura was abolished and its area was divided between the newly formed Districts of Tonk and Sikar. Resolutions had been passed by the District Boards of Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Sawai Madhopur and Malpura when the former Jaipur State was in existence for the levying of the cess in accordance with sec. 31 of the Act. After the present Rajasthan State came into being the District Board of Sikar and Tonk as well as of Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur and Jhunjhunu proceeded to realise the cess from the petitioners of petition Nos. 19, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 33, 35, 36, 37, 45, 52, 53, 57, 60, 61, 62, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 92, 104, 105, 109, 111, 114, 117, 122, 123, 126, 127, 132, 148, 149, 153 and 162 of 1952. They filed these petitions in this Court under Article 226 of Constitution of India for a writ of certiorari prohibition, quo-warranto, Mandamus, or any other appor-priate order or direction against the Collectors of each of these five Districts, Tehsildars of the Tehsils concerned, and the District Board concerned. For the sake of brevity I will call all these petitions collectively petitions of Group A in this judgment. In all these petitions the common grounds on which the validity of the cess has been attacked are principally as follows: - (1) The District Boards were not properly constituted as all the members were not appointed at the time of their constitution. Some of the members were added afterwards. (2) The Chairman was not appointed first as a member at the time of the nomination of other members. The appointments as a Chairman without being a member first was illegal. (3) No resolution with the previous sanction of the Government was passed or published in the Jaipur Gazette regarding levy of cess as required under sec. 31 of the Act and clause (4) of the cess Rules made thereunder, (4) The Cess was not levied according to the procedure prescribed by law. (5) The Members and the Chairman are required to be appointed by name under the Act but some of them were not appointed by name but only by the post which they held under the Government. On behalf of the respondents replies were filed and it was asserted that all five District Boards were validly constituted and that the cess was imposed in accordance with the provisions of the Act. It was also pleaded that the various writs sought for could not be issued in the cases and that an alternative remedy being available in the shape of a civil suit the petitioners had no right to file the petitions. It was further pleaded that the petitioners were all Jagirdars who had not to pay the cess out of their own pockets but were entitled to realise it from the tenants. They were therefore, not persons sufficiently interested to bring the petitions. It was also pleaded that the fact that the Chairman on some of the members were not notified in the Gazette by name but by the post they held under the Government did not render the constitution of the Boards invalid. In the case of the District Boards of Sikar and Tonk an additional ground was taken by the petitioners that the District Boards of these Districts were not the same as the District Board of Malpura and they could not be called the successors of Malpura District Board and were therefore, not entitled to realise the cess imposed by Malpura District Board. To this it was replied by the respondents that by a Notification of the Rajasthan Government dated the 18th July. , 1950 published in the Rajasthan Gazette dated the 22nd July, 1950, Malpura District Board was dissolved and in its place the two District Boards of Tonk and Sikar created and a part of the area of the former Malpura District Board was included in Tonk District Board and another part in the Sikar District Board. The District Boards 6f Sikar and Tonk were therefore, the successors of the former District Board of Malpura and could realise the cess levied by the Malpura District Board. The 44 petitions mentioned above were heard on the 17th and 19th September, 1952 before this very Bench and it was very vehemently argued on behalf of the petitioners that under sec. 31 of the Act it was necessary that the sanction of the Government should be obtained before the levying of the cess which could be levied by a resolution after the sanction of the Government had been given. As in these cases no resolution was passed by the District Boards concerned after the according of sanction by the Government, the District Boards had no right to collect the cess. Judgments were reserved in all the petitions and before they could be delivered applications were made on behalf of the respondents in the cases relating to Sikar and Jhunjhunu District Boards that after the sanction of the Government, resolutions levying cess had been passed by the District Boards concerned and so the defect, if at all, had been removed and praying that the cases be decided after taking into consideration the said resolution. These applications were made on the 3rd October, 1952. Thereafter a motion was made on behalf of the respondents that sec. 31 of the Act had been amended so as to obviate the necessity of passing a resolution after the sanction of the Government and that the amendment was to have retrospective effect and it was prayed that the petitions be decided in accordance with the latest amendment and if necessary parties be heard on the point. It was also moved that by another provision in the same amendment Act (hereinafter to be referred to as the Third Amendment Act) newly constituted Boards in respect of any area or vested with jurisdiction over any area under sub-section (1) of sec. 3 (a) had been invested with the powers to collect all such cesses realise all such amounts and do all such acts as were being exercised, collected, realised and done in such area by the previously existing Board, if any, immediately before such constitution or vesting as aforesaid. This amendment had also retrospective effect and affected the petitions filed before the amendment and should also be consequently taken into consideration. Objections were filed on behalf of the petitioners that the amendments relied upon by the respondents had neither retrospective effect nor could be taken into consideration at the stage they were sought to be relied upon. Another objection was also taken that the Act itself was void being repugnant to Arts. 13 and 14 of the Constitution of India. A date was, therefore, fixed for rehearing of the petitions.
(3.) SOME time before the arguments were heard in the petitions of Group A some petitions had been filed but they were not heard along with the petitions of Group A because they were not ripe for hearing. After the hearing of the petitions of Group A but before the Amending Ordinance was published in the Rajasthan Gazette (Extra-ordinary) dated the 4th October, 1952 which had the same provisions as the Third Amendment Act some more petitions were filed. All these petitions will be referred to collectively as petitions of group B. After the passing of the above Amending Ordinance which was in the same terms as the Third Amendment Act, the following petitions were filed. They shall be referred to collectively as petitions of C group. All these petitions of A, B and C group were heard together on the 19th and 20th March, 1953 and are being disposed of by this judgment as principal questions raised in all are the same. Before I consider the arguments advanced by the learned counsel of parties, it would be more convenient to give a chronological list of the important events which have a bearing upon the present petitions. 3rd October, 1947 jaipur District Boards Act passed. 4th October, 1948 first amendment of District Boards Act passed by which sec. 4-A was inserted providing for constituting provisionally for any area Board consisting wholly of members nominated by the Government the term of which would be two years or until a Board consisting of both elected and nominated members was framed under sec. 4 whichever period might be less. 16th October, 1948 District Boards of Sawai Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Jhunjhunu and Malpura constituted. 22nd October, 1948 Rules framed under the Act. 1st November, 1948 Rules published in the Gazette. 6th November, 1948 District Boards of Sawai Madhopur, Jhunjhunu and Malpura passed resolutions for levy of cess. 19th November, 1948 Proceedings of a meeting under the Chairmanship of Education Minister. 29th November, 1948 Resolution dated the 6th November, 1948 published in the Jaipur Gazette mentioning that sanction of the Government had been accorded. 27th February, 1949 Jaipur District Board passed a resolution levying cess. 6th April, 1949 Resolution dated the 27th February, 1949 published in the Jaipur Gazette mentioning that Government sanction had been received. 8th November, 1949 2nd Amendment of the Act passed sec. 3 (a) added regarding constitution of Districts and inclusion and exclusion of areas. Another sec. 4 (a) also added, providing for provisional Boards consisting of all nominated members only. This amendment was made by the Rajpramukh of Rajasthan after the formation of the present State of Rajasthan. 22nd July, 1950 Following five District Boards constituted: 1. Jaipur. 2. Jhunjhunu. 3. Sawaimadhopur. 4. Sikar. 5. Tonk Malpura District Board abolished. List of members of District Boards given. 21st October, 1950 An official member added and made Chairman. 25th August, 1951 Above District Boards abolished. New Boards with new members constituted. 17th & 19th Sept. , 1952 Petitions of Group A heard. 24th September, 1952 Resolution levying cess passed by Sikar District Board. 25th September, 1952 Government sanction accorded to Sikar resolution dated the 24th Sept. , 1952. 1st October, 1952 Resolution levying cess passed by Jhunjhunu District Board. 1st October, 1952 After the sanction of the Government resolution for levy of cess passed by District Board, Sikar. 4th October, 1952 Amendment of the Act passed by the Jaipur District Boards Act Amendment Ordinance No. 3 of 1952 by which sec. 31 was amended and a new sec. 59 was inserted. 17th November, 1952 Jaipur District Boards Act (Amendment) No. 24 of 1952 passed with the same provisions as those of amendment Ordinance No. 3 of 1952. ;