Judgment

SHELAT, J. :- This appeal, by special leave, is against the judgment of the High Court of Bombay. When the special leave was granted, it was confined to the question whether the tenency in favour of the appellant-company was one for manufacturing purpose, and if it was so, whether the notice terminating the tenancy was inadequate?

2. The appeal first reached hearing before a Division Bench of this Court. At that time, the parties were agreed that the relationship between them was that of landlord and tenant. But the case of the appellant-company was that the lease in its favour was for a period of ten years, that such a lease was for manufacturing purposes, and therefore, could not be validity terminated by a month s notice. The respondents, on the other hand, contended that the lease was by an unregistered document, and that it was not a valid lease by reason of the provisions of Ss. 106 and 107 of the Transfer of Property Act. The Division Bench did not go into the question whether the lease was for manufacturing purposes or not. However, the Division Bench felt that the appeal raised important questions as to the impact of S. 107 upon S. 106 of the Act, and there being so far no decision of this Court upon such a question referred the appeal to a larger Bench. That is how the matter has come up before us.

3. The premises with which we are presently concerned consists of an open piece of adjoining-Haines Road in the City of Bombay. Prior to 1953 the said piece of land belonged to a company called Sir Shapurji Bharucha Mills Co. Ltd. In 1953, the said piece of land was purchased by Bharat Insurance Co. Ltd. It appears that in 1947 the said piece of land was leased to Allenbury & Co. on a monthly rent of Rs. 1800/- where the lessee kept a number of American vehicles used by the army during the Second World War and purchased by the company from the Disposal Department of the Government of India. In or about 1950, the appellant-company was incorporated for the specific purpose of taking over the business of Allenbury & Co. together with all its assets and properties including the said vehicles. In 1954, the appellant-company occupied the said leased land as tenant together with such of the said vehicles remaining undisputed of till then at an agreed rent of Rs. 1800/- a month.

4. It is not in dispute that time a document of lease was executed by the parties, which according to the appellant company provided for a lease for ten years. The document was, however, not registered with the result that it could not be tendered in evidence as one creating a lease. There was, however, no dispute between the parties that the appellant-company paid and the respondents accepted all throughout rent from the appellant-company at the aforesaid agreed rate of Rs. 1800/- a month. On January 20, 1960, the Bharat Insurance Co. Ltd. served a notice upon the appellant-company thereby terminating the tenancy and called upon it to hand over quiet and vacant possession of the said premises on the ground that the appellant-company has sub-let the said land or part of it. The appellant-company having failed to abide by that demand, a suit was filed in the Court of Small Causes at Bombay. On the nationalisation of the Life Insurance Companies and on the Life Insurance Corporation of India being set up, the name of that Corporation was substituted for that of the Bharat Insurance Co. as the plaintiff in the said suit. The suit was henceforth continued by the Corporation.

5. Although the unregistered document could not go in evidence, the suit as well as the appeal arising therefrom before the Appellate Bench of the Small Causes Court proceeded on the basis that the relationship between the parties was that of landlord and tenant as there was no dispute that the occupation of the premises in question by the appellant-company was as a tenant irrespective of what the terms or the period of that tenancy were, which terms could not be proved as the document