Judgment

BHAGWATI, J.:- I entirely agree with the judgment, just delivered by my learned brother. A. N. Sen, J. I am adding a few words of my own since I was a party to the decision in Ganpat Ladha v. Shashikant Vishnu Shinde (1978) 3 SCR 198: where certain observations were made which seem to take a different view from the one we are taking in the present case.

2. The question which arises here for consideration is as to whether statutory tenancy is heritable on the death of the statutory tenant. Statutory tenant is not an expression to be found in any provision of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 or the rent control legislation of any other State. It is an expression coined by the judges in England and, like many other concepts in English law, it has been imported into the jurisprudence of this country and has become an expression of common use to denote a tenant whose contractual tenancy has been determined but who is continuing in possession of the premises by virtue of the protection against eviction afforded to him by the rent control legislation. Though the expression statutory tenant has not been used in any rent control legislation the concept of statutory tenant finds recog