Order

Appellant-landlord filed a suit for recovery of a shop situate at Lati Bazar in city of Bhavnagar which had been let out to the tenant-respondent on a monthly rent of Rs. 111/- for the specific purpose of running timber business. Various grounds were taken in the suit for eviction but for the purposes of the present appeal by special leave we are concerned only with the ground of sub-letting.

2. The case of the appellant-plaintiff in the plaint was that the tenant-defendants were not authorised to sublet, transfer or assign or permit anybody else to make use of the suit property or a part thereof without the consent of the landlord. It was asserted that the tenant-defendants closed down their business of timber and thereafter sublet the premises to Patel Transport Company without consent of the land­lord. A public declaration had been made through a newspaper regarding the starting of the business of Patel Transport Company from the demised premises. The suit was contested and insofar as the question of sub-letting is concerned, the tenant-defendants maintained that there was no sub-letting in favour of Patel Transport Company and that in fact the tenant had entered into a part