Judgment

S. K. DAS, J. : This appeal by special leave may be disposed of an a narrow ground. The material facts are shortly these. Dahingeapar Tea Company Ltd., a company incorporated under the English Companies Act and having its registered office in the city of London owned an extensive tea garden called Dahingeapar Tea Estate comprising an area of about 522 acres under plantation, situate in the sub-division of Jorhat in Assam. That company employed over 800 manual labourers and about 19 or 20 members of the clerical staff. By a memorandum of agreement made on 7-11-1953, between Dahingeapar Tea Co. Ltd., (hereinafter referred to as the vendor) of the one part and Nikhli Jute Baling Co. Ltd., a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act and having its registered office in the town of Calcutta (hereinafter called the purchaser) of the other part, it was agreed that the vendor would sell absolutely and the purchaser would purchase as and from 1-1-1954, all that Dahingeapar Tea Estate comprising the lands described in the Schedule thereto together with all the tea gardens, tea bushes, tea seedlings, tea plants, tea crops etc., and all appurtenances, machinery, electric insta