MOHAMMAD MAHMOOD Vs. TIKAM DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first respondent Tikam Das had let out a house in the city of Jabalpur to the second respondent Surya Kant Naidoo. Sometime in 1961 Tikam Das, herein referred to as the landlord, served a notice on Surya Kant, herein referred to as the tenant, terminating the tenancy and later in the same year filed a suit in a civil Court against the latter for ejectment. On June 23, 1962, by consent of parties, a decree for ejectment was passed in that suit in favour of the landlord against the tenant. The appellants who were occupying the premises as sub-tenants under the tenant had not been made parties to the suit.

(2.) On June 25 and 26, 1962, the appellants served notices on the landlord under S. 15 (2) of the Madhya Pradesh Accommodation Control Act, 1961 which had come into force on December 30, 1961, claiming that as the tenant had sub-let the premises to them before the Act had come into force with the consent of the landlord, they had become his direct tenants under S. 16 (2) of the Act and on June 28, 1962, the appellants filed a suit against both the landlord and the tenant in a civil Court claiming a declaration that they had in the circumstances become direct tenants of the premises under the landlord. On June 30, 1962, the landlord sent a reply to the notices sent by the appellants in which he denied that the sub-letting by the tenant had been with his consent or was lawful. It does not appear that the landlord had put his decree in execution for evicting the appellants.

(3.) One of the points canvassed in the High Court was whether in view of S. 45 (1)of the Act a civil Court was competent to entertain the appellants' suit and it held that it was not and in that view of the matter dismissed the suit. The question is whether the High Court was right.