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PETITIONER: CHANDRANATH MUKHERJEE
Vs.
RESPONDENT: TUSHARIKA DEBI AND OTHERS
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 24/03/1958
BENCH: SINHA, BHUVNESHWAR P. BENCH: SINHA, BHUVNESHWAR P. IMAM, SYED JAFFER SUBBARAO, K.
CITATION: 1958 AIR 521 1959 SCR 226
ACT: Permanent Tenure--Right of successor to recover arrears of rent by suit-Notice of succession to landlord within six months, if mandatory-Mutation in landlord’s rent roll-Mode of Proof Bengal Tenancy Act (Act VIII of 1885) as amended by Bengal Act IV of 1928, ss. 15, 16.
HEADNOTE: The time limit of six months provided by s. 5 of the Bengal Tenancy Act within which a tenure-holder has to give notice of his succession to the landlord or have his name mutated in his rent-roll is not mandatory but directory in character and the only effect which non-observance of that time-limit can have under s. 16 of the Act, is to postpone his remedy to recover arrears of rent by way of suit till such time when he performs the duty cast upon him by s. 5 Of the Act, but it cannot, by itself, bar the remedy for all time to come. Section 16 is a penal provision and must be subjected to its statutory limitation and the penalty it imposes cannot be extended by implication. Consequently, in a case where the sepatnidar resisted the durpatnidars’ suit for recovery of arrears of rent on the ground, inter alia, th...