JUDGMENT

SABYASACHI MUKHARJI, J. : — This is an appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated 19th November, 1986 of the learned single Judge of the Bombay High Court. In this appeal this Court has been asked to examine the frontiers of judicial review of the action of a statutory authority, i.e. the Board of Trustees of the Port of Bombay in evicting its tenant and granting the land in question to another tenant. However in order to appreciate the controversy it is necessary to have a conspectus of the facts involved.

2. The respondent Board of Trustees of the Port of Bombay is a statutory authority. Vast areas of South Bombay which are completely tenanted, are owned by the respondent. Being a statutory authority. the respondent has been exempted from the operation of the relevant Rent Act. The respondent is a statutory corporation constituted under the Major Port Trust Act, 1963 as amended by the Major Port Trust Amendment Act. 1974.

3. Between about 1906 and 1932, one Jhunjhunwala was the lessee of plot No. 6 (which adjoins plot 5B which is the suit plot) and a building was existing on plot No. 6 which was tenanted to M/s. Bombay Bharat & Swadeshi Rice Mills, and the s