The provisions of Section 48 of the Presidency Small Cause Courts Act, 1882, which require the Small Cause Court to follow the procedure prescribed for a Court of first instance by the Code of Civil Procedure, as far as may be, and except as otherwise provided, apply to proceedings under Chapter VII of the Act. This means that the procedure for hearing claims in such proceedings is governed by Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure.

( 1 ) THIS is a Rule obtained against an order of the Registrar of the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, rejecting an application before him by a sub-tenant, There was a proceeding by Dayal Chand Dey and Murari Mohan Dey under Chap. VII, Presidency Small Cause Courts Act, 1882, against Baidynath Seal, in which an order was passed on 13th July 1949, thus : "by consent the suit is decreed with costs. "

( 2 ) THE petitioner claims to be the sub-tenant of Baidyanath Seal and considers that in effect he cannot be removed from the part of the premises which he holds as a sub-tenant under Baidyanath Seal in view of the provisions of Section 11 (3), West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act, 1948. He also in his application made some reference to Section 18 of that Act (which appears to me to have no bearing on the present question at all) and made a number of somewhat strange prayers which it is not necessary to set out; but his principal prayer was that a notice be issued on the opposite party, namely, the plaintiffs and defendant in the proceeding under Chap. VII "to show cause why the applicant, the lawful sub tenant under the defendant, should not be deemed to be a tenant direct under the plaintiffs and the decree passed without the knowledge of the applicant be rescinded or varied under Section 11, Clause (3) and Section 8, West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act, 1948 and in the meantime all further proceedings and execution be stayed in the meantime. "

( 3 ) THE learned Registrar has remarked in his order :"as there is no special provision that the substantive right granted to a sub-tenant under Section 11 (3), West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act, 1948 can be enforced by an application in this Court, the Small Cause Court cannot entertain the matter. "

( 4 ) HE has stated further that "the applicant has, therefore, to bring a regular suit in the Hon'ble High Court and obtain an order staying delivery of possession. . . " He granted a short stay to give the applicant time to file his suit.

( 5 ) IT would seem that perhaps through some misunderstanding of the effect of the provisions of Section 16, West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act, the Registrar has come to believe that some alteration has been made in the provisions of the Act so that the Court now has a power to try a suit for ejectment; otherwise it is not easy to understand why the order is passed in the form quoted above that the suit was decreed by consent. The position has been discussed in the case of Amulya Ratan v. Meghmala Dutt, 53 C. W. N. 474. The proceedings under Chap. VII, are not a suit and indeed, Section 14 of the Act, under whose provisions power can be conferred on the Registrar to deal with such proceedings, specially provides that for the purpose of that section only that shall be deemed to be a suit. The point is of some importance in considering whether the learned Registrar is correct in saying that there is no provision that rights of the sub-tenant under Section 11 (3), West Bengal Premises Rent Control Act can be enforced by an application in the Court of Small Causes.

( 6 ) IN my opinion, the matter is provided for in Section 48, Presidency Small Cause Courts Act which lays down that in all proceedings under Chap. VII, the Small Cause Court shall"as far as may be and except as herein otherwise provided follow the procedure prescribed for a Court of first instance by the Code of Civil Procedure. "ordinarily, the Small Cause Court by virtue of the provisions of Section 19 (d) of the Act, which bars the Court's jurisdiction in suits for recovery of immovable property, has nothing to do with immovable property either in suits or in execution. But there are some special provisions in the Act which do result in the Court having some jurisdiction in respect of immovable property. One provision is Section 28 dealing with a matter of structures attached to immoveable property and other provisions are in Chap. VII. Chapter VIII also relating t