TMI Blog1966 (9) TMI 137X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... offered by intending tenants on expiry of the said term. Clause 7 of the Deed of Lease provided that the lessee shall be bound on the termination or sooner determination of the lease to restore to the lessors the land demised after removing the structures with drains, privies water taps etc., leaving the land in the same state as it was at the date of the lease. It also provided that the lessee would be bound to sell the said structures, privies, drains etc. to the lessors if the lessors so desired at a valuation to be fixed by a qualified Engineer specified therein. Clause 7 then provided as follows:- Provided always and it is hereby agreed and declared that if it be required that the lessee should vacate the said premises at the end of the said term of 10 years the lessee will be served with a 6 months notice ending with the expiry of the said term and it is further agreed that if the lessee is permitted to hold over the land after the expiry of the said term of 10 years the lessee will be allowed a six months notice to quit and vacate the said premises. It is clear that the lessee was entitled to a six months notice in the following two events before he could be require ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f his said letter the Wards Estate had continued to accept the rent as agreed under the said lease, that the demand of ₹ 12/- per cottah was not a bona fide one and that the said notice was illegal. While the suit was pending the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act, 1949 was enacted and brought into force. On both the parties agreeing that the appellant was a Thika Tenant as defined by the said Act and that therefore the suit would be governed by that. Act the Court transferred it to the Thika Controller under s.29 of the Act. The suit thus stood transferred to the Fourth Court of the Munsiff at Alipore who was the Thika Controller under the Act. While the suit was still pending the West Bengal legislature passed the said Amendment Act VI of 1953 which came into force on April 21, 1953 by section 8 of which sections 28 and 29 of the Act were deleted. On September 12, 1953, the appellant filed an application before the Thika Controller that as a result of the deletion of section 29 he lost jurisdiction over the said suit. That application was however rejected and the suit continued to be on the file of the Controller. On January 24, 1954, the respondents applied for amendment of the pl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the Controller after s. 29 of the Act was deleted and (2) regarding the notice which the appellant claimed he was entitled to under the said lease before the respondents could. exercise any right of eviction. The High Court was of the view that in spite of the deletion of section 29 the jurisdiction of the Controller in respect of matters pending before him at the date of the coming into force of the said Amending Act was saved and also rejected the appellant s contention as to notice on the ground that the non-obstante provision in s. 3 of the Act entitled the landlords to a decree for eviction without first terminating the contractual tenancy by a notice as provided for by the said proviso to cl. 7 of the said Deed of Lease. Mr. Agarwal for the appellant, at first raised four contentions before us, viz., (1) whether s. 3 of the Act deprived a tenant of his rights under the lease, (2) whether the Controller had jurisdiction to proceed with the case after the deletion of s. 29 from the Act; (3) whether there was a renewal of the said lease and (4) whether the appellant could be evicted on the ground of sub-letting even though the said lease expressly permitted him to sub-let. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a tenant. Therefore, a landlord is entitled to a decree for eviction only (a) if he has first terminated the contractual tenancy and (b) where the landlord fulfils the requirements of one or more of the several grounds in section 3. The Thika Tenancy Act like similar Rent Acts passed in different States is intended to prevent indiscriminate eviction of tenants and is intended to be a protective statute to safeguard security of possession of tenants and therefore should be construed in the light of its being a social legislation. What section 3 therefore does is to provide that even where a landlord has terminated the contractual tenancy by a proper notice such landlord can succeed in evicting his tenant provided that he falls under one or more of the clauses of that section. The word notwithstanding in section 3 on a true construction therefore means that even where the contractual tenancy is properly terminated, notwithstanding the landlord s right to possession under the Transfer of Property Act or the contract of lease he cannot evict the tenant unless he satisfied any One of the grounds set out in section 3. Rent Acts are not ordinarily intended to interfere with contractual ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ancy. It does not provide for the rights and liabilities of the lessor and lessee in a Thika tenancy and therefore, for those purposes, one has still to look to the Transfer of Property Act. The only decision which has taken a contrary view is R. Krishnamurthy v. Parthasarathy( A.I.R. 1949 Mad. 750.) where it was held that secton 7 of the Madras Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act XV of 1946 had its own scheme of procedure and therefore there was no question of an attempt to reconcile that Act with the Transfer of Property Act. On that view, the High Court held that an application for eviction could be made to the Rent Controller even before the contractual tenancy was terminated by a notice to quit. That decision is clearly contrary to the decisions of this Court in Abasbhai s Case(1) and Mangilal s Case (2) and therefore is not correct law. It was, however, argued by Mr. Sarjooprasad on behalf of the respondents that on the footing that the provisions of the Thika Act could only be availed of by a landlord after the termination of the contractual tenancy no notice either under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act or under the lease was necessary in the present case a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ral law or under the contract of lease. The Thika Act like other Rent Acts enacted in various States imposes certain further restrictions on the right of the landlord to evict his tenant and lays down that the status of irremovability of a tenant cannot be got rid of except on specified grounds set out in section 3. The right of the appellant therefore to have a notice as provided for by the proviso to clause 7 of the Lease was not in any manner affected by section 3 of the Thika Act. The effect of the non-obstante clause was that even where a landlord has duly terminated the contractual tenancy or is otherwise entitled to evict his tenant he would still be entitled to a decree for eviction provided that his claim for possession falls under any one or more of or the grounds in section 3. Before therefore the respondents could be said to be entitled to a decree for eviction they had first to give six months notice as required by the proviso to clause 7 of the lease and such notice not having been admittedly given their suit for eviction could not succeed. In our view the construction placed by the High Court on section 3 was not correct and the High Court was wrong in holding tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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