LAWS(CAL)-1975-12-49

RENUKANA MOOKERJEE Vs. BHABANI CHATTERJEE

Decided On December 19, 1975
RENUKANA MOOKERJEE Appellant
V/S
BHABANI CHATTERJEE Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal by the tenants-Defendants under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent is directed against the judgment passed by M.M. Dutt J. in S.A. No. 714 of 1970 affirming two concurrent decisions whereby the Appellants were directed to be evicted from the premises in dispute.

(2.) The only point pressed by Mr. Manindra Nath Ghose, the learned Advocate for the Appellants, is that the notice to quit was not legally valid and reasonably sufficient and the tenancy of the Defendants was not terminated thereby.

(3.) Facts necessary for the purpose of determination of this point may briefly be stated. The premises in suit comprising 58/4A Raja Dinendra Street and 242 Vivekananda Road/Calcutta, formerly belonged to one Kumud Ranjan Banerjee under whom the Appellant's predecessor Madan Mohan Mukherjee was the original tenant. Madan Mohan took lease of the aforesaid premises from Kumud Ranjan at a monthly rental of Rs. 300 payable according to English calendar month under a deed of lease dated January 8, 1947, in 'accordance with the terms of which the lease was to commence with effect from January 1, 1947. During his life-time Kumud Ranjan filed a suit for ejectment against Madan Mohan, being T.S. No. 85 of 1951 in the Sixth Court of the Subordinate Judge at Alipore and the, suit was dismissed on the ground of invalidity and insufficiency of the notice. An appeal against; the said decision proved infructuous insofar as the claim for ejectment was concerned. In his above decision, the learned Subordinate Judge came to the finding that the month of the tenancy was either from the second day of the month to the first day of the following month or from the ninth day of the month to the eighth day of the following month and as the notice in that suit did not require the Defendants to quit and vacate with the expiry of the month of tenancy mentioned above, the suit was dismissed. In the disputed premises, there is a school known as Manicktolla High School, which was set up as a tenant by the Defendant's predecessor in the earlier suit, but this plea was negatived by the Court and Mr. Ghose appearing for the Appellants did not press this point any further. After the appeal was disposed of on April 25, 1958, Kumud Ranjan transferred the property in favour of the present Respondent No. 1 sometime in June 1959. Madan Mohan thereafter attorned in favour of the present Plaintiff-Respondent and paid rents to her. On January 15, 1963, Madan Mohan, the original tenant, died and on March 11, 1967, the Plaintiff-Respondent instituted the suit, out of which the present appeal arises for ejectment of the legal representatives of Madan Mohan, from the suit premises after serving a notice to quit on the Defendants-Appellants on February 24, 1966. The said notice to quit after reciting the above facts and also after referring to the finding of the learned Subordinate Judge in T.S. No. 85 of 1954 of the Sixth Court of the Subordinate Judge at Alipore alleged that the Defendants were defaulters in making payment of rents to the Plaintiff and in making invalid deposits of the same since January 1963. The notice, accordingly, directed the termination of the tenancy of these persons