The Board of Trustees of the Port of Bombay is a local authority within the meaning of section 3(26) of the Bombay General Clauses Act, 1904, and the premises in question are therefore exempted from the provisions of the Bombay Rent Act by virtue of section 4 of the said Act.

JUDGMENT - R.A. JAHAGIRDAR, J.:---An application, being Ejectment Application No. 5/23/E of 1975, has been filed in the Small Causes Court at Bombay, by the Board of Trustees of the Port of Bombay, which is the respondent in this petition, against two petitioners under section 41 of the Presidency Small Cause Courts Act before its amendment in 1976. That application has been filed for ejecting the petitioners from a plot of land measuring 301. 01 sq. metres which is in possession of the petitioners under the permission granted by the respondent. In that application the petitioners raised a contention that they are the tenants of the premises from which they are being sought to be ejected. The contention of the respondent that the premises in question are exempted under section 4 of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947, hereinafter referred to as “the Bombay Rent Act”, was countered by the petitioners by contending that the respondent is not a local authority.

2. The learned Judge was called upon to decide the question as to whether the respondent is a local authority. The answer of the Court below was in the was in the affirmative. This order was passed by the Court below by its judgment and order dated 20th January, 1983 which is challenged in this petition under Article 227 of the Constitution.

3. The importance of the question as to whether the respondent is a local authority arises from what is mentioned in section 4 of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act which provides that the Act shall not apply to any premises belonging to a local authority. If the respondent is not a local authority then, may be, the petitioners would be protected by the provisions of the Bombay Rent Act. If the respondent is a local authority, the exemption will apply and the petitioners will not be entitled to invoke the protection under the provisions of the Bombay Rent Act.

4. Mr. C.V. Mandavia, the learned Advocate appearing in support of this petition, has contended in the first place that the Board of the Trustees of the Port of Bombay is not a local authority. Secondly, he has contended that even if it is a local authority then it must have power under the law to control or manage local fund. He has also contended that the body of the port trustees must have certain autonomous powers in order to qualify to be a local authority. The arguments of Mr. Mandavia are based upon the definition of local authority to be found in section 3(26) of the Bombay General Clauses Act, 1904. Reproduction of the said definition, therefore, becomes necessary.

5. Section 3(26) of the Bombay General Clauses Act, 1904, says that :

"local authority' shall mean a municipal corporation, municipality, local board, body of port trustees or commissioners or other authority legally entitled to, or entrusted by the Government with, the control or management of municipal or local fund."

A proper analysis of this definition, in my opinion, should lead one to hold a local authority means---

(i) a municipal corporation,

(ii) municipality,

(iii) local board,

(iv) body of port trustees or Commissioners,

(v) or other authority legally entitled to, or entrusted by the Government with the control or management of a municipal or local fund.

In my opinion, therefore, if a body of port trustees is included in the definition of local authority under the Bombay General Clauses Act, then nothing more remains to be inquired into to hold that it is a local authority. It may be noted that prior to the coming into force of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, the Bombay Port which has been always a major port was managed by a board of trustees called the Trustees of the Port of Bombay constituted under section 4 of the Bombay Port Trusts Act, 1879. That board was a body corporate having a perpetual succession and common seal. By the provisions of section 4 of the Bombay Port Trusts Act, 1879 it was empowered to sue and was liable to be s

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