A change in law during the pendency of an appeal must be considered and applied to the case, and a decree passed under the previous law may be rendered a nullity if it does not conform to the amended law, especially when the amended law has retrospective effect.

( 1 ) THIS revisional application has been filed by the judgment-debtor/ petitioner, against the decree-holders/opposite parties against the order dated 21st May, 1986 by which the petitioners application under Section 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure was rejected, in which the judgment-debtor petitioner prayed for dismissal of the execution case on the ground that the judgment and decree passed by the trial Court, which was affirmed by this Court in Second appeal, is a nullity.

( 2 ) THE decree-holders/opposite parties filed suit against the judgment-debtor/petitioner for eviction alleging that by a registered conveyance the decree-holders-plaintiffs purchased the property in question and that the defendant/judgment-debtor was a monthly tenant-at-will under the predecessor-in-interest of the decree-holders/ opposite parties and that the tenancy was governed originally by the provisions of the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act, 1948, but because of the subsequent amendment in the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act by the amendment of 1968, the provisions of the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act, having been withdrawn from the Garden Reach area, where the suit premises lies with a retrospective effect, the tenancy was governed by the provisions of the Transfer of Property Act. The trial Court decreed the suit for eviction by the judgment and decree dated 10th January, 1971, holding that the tenancy was governed by the Transfer of Property Act because of the changes in law.

( 3 ) BEING aggrieved by the said judgment and decree passed by the trial Court, the judgment-debtor/ petitioner preferred an appeal before the lower appellate Court and the lower appellate Court dismissed the appeal filed by the judgment and decree dated 7th October, 1974 in Title Appeal No. 296 of 1974, and affirmed the decree for eviction passed by the trial Court. Against that judgment and decree passed by the lower appellate Court dated 7th October, 1974 the judgment-debtor/ petitioner preferred a second appeal before this Court which was registered as Appeal from Appellate Decree No. 194 of 1977 and that the said appeal was also dismissed by Arun Kumar Janah, J. of this Court by the judgment and decree dated 13th April, 1983, inter alia, holding that the tenancy was governed by the provisions of Transfer of Property Act and there was nothing to show that the provisions of the West Bengal Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1949 automatically became applicable to the disputed land after the withdrawal of the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act from the lands within the Garden Reach Municipality with retrospective effect.

( 4 ) AFTER the dismissal of the appeal by this Court the judgment-debtor-petitioner filed an objection under Section 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure before the executing Court alleging that during the pendency of the appeal before the lower appellate Court, the West Bengal Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1949 was amended by the Amending Act of 1974 whereby the provisions of the West Bengal Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act was extended to the area in question and as such the provisions of the West Bengal Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act should be made applicable in this case and the tenancy should be governed by the provisions of that Act and not under the provisions of the Transfer of Property Act. The trial Court by the order dated 21st May, 1986, passed in Misc. Case No. 3 of 1986, rejected the said objection raised by the judgment-debtor as to the maintainability of the decree.

( 5 ) MR. Saktinath Mukherjee, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner, contended in the first place that the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act, 1948 came into force with effect from 28th February, 1949 and in view of the provisions of Section 1 (2) of the said Act the provisions of the said Act were applicable to the Garden Reach Municipality area. The relevant provision of 1949 Act was as follows:-"it extends to Calcutta as defined in Clause (ii) of Section 3