SURENDRA NATH BIBRA Vs. STEPHEN COURT LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Calcutta in an application under S. 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure and under Art. 227 of the Constitution filed by the tenant, Shri Surendra Nath Bibra, now appellant before us.

(2.) Stephen Court Limited, respondent before us, hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff, filed a suit in the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, for the recovery of rent from September 1956 to November 1956, at the rate of Rs. 350 per mensem, and interest, against the appellant, hereinafter referred to as the defendant, alleging that the defendant was a monthly tenant by virtue of a lease, dated April, 30 1956, under the plaintiff, in respect of flat No. 17 at premises No. 18A, Park Street, known as Stephen Court in the town of Calcutta, and that the defendant had not paid the rent from September to November, 1956. The defendant, inter alia pleaded that relying on the representation and assurance of the plaintiff that three bedrooms, two bath rooms, etc., would be available to the defendant in flat No. 17, he executed a lease on April 30, 1956, for a period of 21 years, but the plaintiff put him in possession only of two bed-rooms and not three, and according to him, in the circumstances he was entitled to suspend the rent altogether.

(3.) The Small Cause Court Judge, Mr. Mandal, found that the defendant had not been put into possession of one of the three bed-rooms. Purporting to follow Katyayani Debi vs. Udoy Kumar Das, 30 Cal WN 1 and Abhoya Charan Sen vs. Hem Chandra Pal, 33 Cal WN 715, he held that the defendant was entitled to suspend payment of rent to the plaintiff.