JHAMANDAS RAMCHAND Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition for an appropriate writ, direction or order against the State of Bombay restraining them from enforcing an order of requisition dated February 24, 1954.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that one Miss Marsh was carrying on a guest and lodging house under the name and style of Marsh Guest House in flat No. 3 on the ground floor of a building known as Jenkins House at Henery Road, Colaba, By a deed of assignment dated October 6, 1951, the said Miss Marsh sold the said business for the petitioner together with its goodwill and tenancy rights for a consideration of Rs. 6,000. The petitioner himself took in boarders after he became the owner of the said boarding house and the flat was being used as a lodging house all along right upto the time when the order of requisition was made. It is the petitioner's contention that the flat having been used as a lodging house it did not constitute 'premises' within the meaning of the definition of that Word in the Bombay Land Requisition Act, 1948, and therefore the flat was not liable to be requisitioned. The Accommodation Officer, Mr. Kulkarni, in his affidavit points out that Miss Marsh was an employee in the G.I.P. Railway at all material times and therefore a Government employee, and as such she was not entitled to carry on any business. The tenancy of the flat originally stood in the name of the father of Miss Marsh and he by his letter dated November 14, 1947, requested the trustees of the Indian Institute of Science who are the owners of the property to transfer the tenancy in the name of Miss Marsh in order to enable her to draw the house rent allowance from the Railway. He further points out that according to the terms of the lease granted by the Bombay Port Trust in respect of the land on which the building stands the premises could not be used except as a private residence. He alleges that Miss Marsh being desirous of devising some method of by -passing the provisions of the Bombay Land Requisition Act conceived of an idea of getting this flat registered under the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948, as a guest house and the alleged document of transfer was obtained by the petitioner in collusion with the said Miss Marsh in order to defeat the provisions of the Bombay Land Requisiton Act.

(3.) NOW , the relevant definition is to be found in Section 4(3) and is as follows: Premises means any building or part of a building let or intended to be let separately including -