Judgment

GAJENDRAGADKAR, C.J.I.:

This appeal by special leave raises a short question as to whether the lease executed by the respondent, Sardar Mal Lalwani in favour of the appellant, Uttamchand, can be said to be a lease of an accommodation within the meaning of S. 3 of the Madhya Pradesh Accommodation Control Act, 1955 (No. XXIII of 1955) (hereinafter called the Act). The appellant moved the Rent Controller to fix the rent payable by him under the lease in question in respect of the property demised to him under S. 9(1) of the Act. This application was resisted by the respondent on the ground that the lease in question did not fall within the protection of the Act as the property demised to the appellant was not accommodation within the meaning of S. 3, and the rent payable by the appellant to the respondent was, therefore, not payable for any accommodation to which the Act applied. The Rent Controlling Authority at Bhopal rejected the respondent s contention and, on the merits, held that Rs. 2,400/- per annum should be the reasonable annual rent payable under the lease.

2. The respondent then went in appeal to the District Judge at Bhopal and urged that the Rent Controlling Author