JUDGMENT

N. VENKATACHALA, J. - This is a tenants appeal by special have granted under Article 136 of the Constitution. It is directed against the judgment and order dated 22-12-1981 of the High Court of Judicature at Madras in CRP No. 1923 of 1981 by which an eviction order made by the courts below against the tenant/appellant under Section 10(3) (a) (iii) of the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1960 - "the Act", was affirmed.

2. Messrs Fakruddin and Company is a partnership firm the business of which was formerly carried on by Thyabally Rasuljee, Respondent 1 at non-residential building No. 155, Linghi Chetty Street, Madras, taken on rent, not being his own.

3. Messrs Super Forgings & Steels Ltd., a company registered under the Indian Companies Act is the tenant, which was carrying on its business in a non-residential building No. 118, Linghi Chetty Street, Madras - "the petition non-residential building" of which Respondent 1 was the landlord. The landlord filed a petition against the tenant on the ground available to him under Section 10(3) (a) (iii) of the Act before the Rent Controller at Madras for eviction of the tenant from the petition non-residential building, by stating the facts which constituted the said ground, thus :

"The petitioner submits that he is carrying on business in the name and style of Messrs Fakruddin & Company which is a partnership firm at No. 155 (Old No. 307), Linghi Chetty Street, G. T. Madras-1, which is a rented building and there is a treat of eviction. The petitioner is not in occupation of any building of his own for the business which he is carrying on anywhere in the city of Madras. "

4. Since it was found by the Rent Controller that the facts constituting the said ground of eviction under Section 10(3) (a) (iii) of the Act, on which the landlord had sought eviction of the tenant from the petition non-residential building were satisfactorily established, eviction order was made by him in respect of the petition non-residential building. Though, that eviction order was challenged by the tenant before the appellate authority and the High Court, in appeal and revision, respectively, both the appeal and revision were dismissed by judgments and orders made in them. The present appeal by special leave, filed by the tenant in the year 1982 is directed against the said eviction order of the Rent Controller and judgments and orders of the appellate authority and the High Court.

5. Certain development which have taken place during the pendency of the present appeal in this Court, need mention here as they directly bear on the case under appeal : That in the year 1984, after an order was made by this Court on 29-4-1982, granting special leave to appeal from eviction order of the Rent Controller and the judgments and orders of the appellate authority and the High Court and granting stay of eviction order operating against the tenant, partnership business of M/s. Fakruddin and Company which was carried on by Respondent 1 at the rented non-residential building No. 155, Linghi Chetty Street, Madras came to be shifted to non-residential building No. 151, Linghi Chetty Street, Madras, Respondent 1 in the present appeal, who was the landlord since died on 16-8-1985, that partnership business of M/s. Fakruddin and Company, came to be carried on by some of its partners who are some of the Respondent 2 to 11 in this appeal, brought on record as LRs of deceased Respondent 1. When the said developments were brought to the notice of a Division Bench of this Court presided over by one of us (Ramaswamy, J.), before which the present appeal had come up for hearing on 29-9-1993, an order was made directing the Small Cause Court, Madras, to hold an enquiry into matters relating to the partners who are carrying on the business of Messrs Fakruddin and Company after the demise of Respondent 1, the owners of non-residential building No. 151, Linghi Chetty Street, Madras, where the business of M/s. Fakrud