BALAJI RAGHUNATH PHADKE Vs. RAMCHANDRA KASHI PATKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff brought this suit on a kabulayat dated 30 June, 1890, to recover rent from the defendant as his tenant for the years 1897-98, 1898-99, and 1899-1900, in respect of his (the plaintiff s) one-tenth share in a khoti takshim. The kabulayat sued on was for live years.

(2.) The defendant pleaded in answer that the period of the kabulayat having expired on the 30 of June, 1895, the relation of landlord and tenant between the plaintiff and himself ceased after that date. That would be so, no doubt, according to the decisions in Kantheppa Raddi V/s. Sheshappa (1897) 22 Bom. 893 and Chandri V/s. Daji Bhau (1900) 24 Bom. 504 where it was held that where a tenancy for a fixed period expires, and the tenant continues in possession on such expiry his possession is only by sufferance, and no relation of landlord and tenant can after that subsist in the absence of anything from which a new tenancy can be inferred.

(3.) Section 116 of the Transfer of Property Act provides that where a lessee of property remains in possession thereof after the determination of the lease granted to the lessee and the lessor or his legal representative accepts rent from the lessee, or otherwise assents to his continuing in possession, the lease is, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, renewed from year to year, &c. In the present case, then, though the kabulayat expired on the 30 of Juno, 1895, the relation of landlord and tenant would continue after that date if the plaintiff assented to the defendant's continuance in possession.