The word 'premises' in the West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act, 1950 refers to the subject-matter of a separate demise, and not to the land itself apart from the tenancy.

( 1 ) THIS Rule was obtained by the petitioner who is a tenant of a room in premises No. 24a Canning Street in the city of Calcutta. The petitioner applied on 29-4-1949 for fixation of standard rent in respect of the said room. The Rent Controller fixed the standard rent at Rs. 171-7-3 with effect from 1-4-1949. On appeal the Judge of the Court of Small Causes by his order dated 25-9-1950, has modified the order of the Rent Controller and has fixed the standard rent at Rs. 140-9-6 with effect from 1-5-1950. The petitioner assails the order of the Small Cause Court Judge on the ground that there was no basic rent in respect of the disputed premises and as such the fixation of standard rent was erroneous in law.

( 2 ) THE question depends on certain facts to which reference should be made. It appears that the disputed room, was let out on 1-12-1941 in two portions to two separate tenants. The rent paid by the tenant in respect of the western portion of the room was Rs. 65/- per mensem. The rent paid by the tenant occupying the eastern portion of the room was Rs. 58/- per mensem. It appears that since September 1942 the entire room was let out to the petitioner's predecessor-in-interest at a rent of Rs. 90/- the intervening partition wall having been removed from the said room. The rent payable by the predecessor-in-interest of the present petitioner was later raised to Rs. 100/ -. It does not appear when the rent was so increased. The Rent Controller proceeded on the footing that the basic rent could be ascertained by totalling up the rent payable in respect of the two portions of the disputed room and by giving to the landlord an increase in the taxes payable by the tenant. The appellate Court has modified this decree but the effect of the decisions of both the Courts below is the same. The decision, proceeds on the footing that the room, the standardisation of rent whereof is in question, was let out on 1-12-1941, as the rent paid by the tenants occupying the two portions of the said room. The question is whether it could be said that the premises the rent whereof is sought to be standardised were let out at a certain rent on 1-12-1941.

( 3 ) IN order to deal with this contention it is necessary to refer to certain provisions of the West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act (Act 17 of 1950 ). This Act came into force on 30-3-1950. The application for standardisation of rent was made when the earlier Act, West Bengal Premises Rent Control (Temporary Provisions) Act (Act 38 of 1940) was in force. It is not disputed that the rights of the landlord and tenant, so far as it concerns the application for standardisation of the rent, would be governed by the provisions of the 1950 Act. Section 9 of the 1950 Act confers on the Rent Controller jurisdiction to fix the standard rent payable for any premises. Section 9 (1) provides as follows:"in any of the following cases, the Controller shall on application by any landlord or tenant fix the standard rent as set forth hereunder (a) where the provisions of Schedule A apply and there is no cause for the alteration of the rate of standard rent as determined according to the schedule for any of the reasons mentioned in the following clauses, in accordance with the provisions of Schedule A. "we are not concerned with Clauses (b) to (d) for the purpose of the present case. Clause (e) runs as follows:"excepting the case covered by Clause (f) following where the provisions of Schedule A for determining the standard rent do not apply, either because the premises or the whole of the premises were not let on 1-12-1941 or for some other reasons, or where any premises have been let rent free or at a nominal rent, or for some consideration other than money rent, or in addition to money rent, by fixing the standard rent at a rate in accordance with Schedule A, taking the rent which would have been reasonably payable for the premises it let on 1-12-1941, as basic rent under the said schedule