Respondents 2 and 3, who are the tenants under the appellant land-owner, in this appeal, filed on January 10, 1961 betore the Assistant Collector, I Grade, Fazilka, an application under s. 18 ( 1) of the Act for purchase from their land-lord 19 acres and 7 kanals of land comprised in their tenancy. Their case was that they had been in continuous occupation of the land comprised in their tenancy for a minimum period of six years and, as such, they were entitled to purchase the land. Their claim was resisted by the appellant land-owners on the ground that it was only those tenants who had completed a continuous period of six years of tenancy prior to the commencement of the Act who were entitled to purchase the land under s. 18 ( 1) of the Act and as the applicants did not satisfy that test, the application was not maintainable. The Assistant Collector, by his order dated March 29, 1961 over-ruled the objections of the land-owners and held that the application filed by the tenants was maintainable as similar purchase applications had been entertained without regard to ainy date of completion of six years of continuous tenancy and in this view the matter was directed to be posted for further hearing. The appellants challenged this order of the Assistant Collector by an appeal taken before the Collector, Ferozepore. The Collector, by order dated June 9, 1961 reversed the order of the Assistant Coliector and held that no tenant who had not been in continuous possession for six years on the commencement of the Act could apply, under s.18 (1) of the Act, for purchasing the property and that the six year period should have been completed at the time the Act came into force. In this view he held that the application filed by the tenants was not maintainable.
