SURENDRA NATH KOLEY Vs. SUHAS CHANDRA MITRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Defendant's appeal arising out of a suit for ejectment under the West Bengal Non -Agricultural Tenancy Act. The suit has been decreed by the three Courts below. Hence this appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent by the Defendant.

(2.) The Plaintiff's case, inter alia, was that the disputed tenancy started under a lease for 9 years, which expired in Aswin, 1351 B.S. The Plaintiff's case further was that, after the expiry of the said lease the Defendant continued on the land under a monthly tenancy of which the year was according to the Bengali calendar or from Baisakh to Chaitra. The language used in the plaint for this purpose was somewhat unhappy and inartistic but, reading the plaint as a whole, it may very well be inferred that the Plaintiff's case on this point was really a case of a new tenancy or novation of contract, stipulating the year of the tenancy according to the Bengali calendar.

(3.) The defence was that the Defendant occupied the disputed land as a tenant from a much earlier period, namely, 1337 B.S. and, even if his tenancy be taken to have started under the aforesaid lease, after the expiry of the same in Aswin, 1351 B.S., he held over on the same terms and conditions with the result that the year of the tenancy was from Kartick to Aswin of the Bengali year.