Judgment

SUBBA RAO, J. : These two appeals on certificate raise the same points and. arise out of a common order made by the High Court of Judicature of Madras in Writ Petitions Nos. 829 and 830 of 1960. Both of them may conveniently be disposed of together.

2. The facts in Civil Appeal No. 228 of 1962 are briefly as follows: The first appellant is a limited company carrying on transport business. The second appellant is its managing director. The first appellant took over the business of Swami Motor Service Company, of which the second appellant was the Managing Partner. In his capacity as Managing Partner of the said company, the second appellant took a lease of a vacant site, being survey No. 2770, belonging to the first respondent. After the first appellant took over the business of the said partnership company, including its leasehold interest in the said site, the first respondent recognized him as his tenant and was receiving the rent from him. It is alleged that the appellants constructed many valuable structures on the said site. The first respondent i.e., Sri Sankaraswamigal Mutt through its trustee, filed a suit, O. S. No. 103 of 1953, in the Court of the district Munsif Tanjore, for evicting the appellant-company from the site, and on July 30, 1954 a compromise decree for eviction was made therein giving six months time for the appellant-company to vacate the site. The decree-holder filed an execution petition in the said court against the first appellant for executing the decree. Pending the execution petition, Madras Act XIX of 1955 was passed empowering the State Government to extend the Madras City Tenants Protection Act, 1921 (III of 1922), hereinafter called the "principal Act", to any municipal town by notification in the Fort St. George Gazette. In exercise of the powers conferred by Act XIX of 1955, the Government made an order notifying the Town of Tanjore to have come within the purview of the principal Act. Under the provisions of the principal Act, the appellants filed Original Petition No. 39 of 1956 in the said court for an order directing the execution of a conveyance of the said site in favour of the company on payment of a price fixed by the court. Those proceedings took a tortuous course mainly, it is alleged, on account of obstrutive tactics adopted by the respondents in anticipation of an expected legislation withdrawing the benefits conferred on tenants of non-residential buildings in the Town of Tanjore. As anticipated the State Legislature passed Act Xlll of 1960, amending the principal Act: the effect of the amendment was to withdraw the protection given to tenants of non- residential buildings in the municipal town of Tanjore and certain other towns. Under the provisions of the impugned Act proceedings instituted under the provisions of the principal Act relating to non-residential buildings situated in towns other than those preferred would abate. The appellants filed a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution in the High Court of Judicature at Madras for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing; the District Munsif to dispose of the petition in accordance with the provisions of S. 9 of the principal Act, as it stood before its amendment by Act XIII of 1960.

3. In Civil Appeal No. 229 of 1962 the subject-matter is a site, being survey No. 74. Railway Road, Tanjore, belonging to the first respondent to this appeal. The appellant s father executed a lease deed in favour of the first respondent in respect of some parts of the said site; the lease deed contained a clause giving an option to the tenant to renew the lease for a further period of 10 years. It is alleged that the appellant s father had erected substantial structures at heavy cost on the site even before the said lease as he was in possession of the said site as a tenant under the predecessor of the first respondent. After the expiry of 10 years, the appellant s father exercised the option and continued to be in possession of t