CHAKRAVARTTI, C.J.:- An experiment in law-making with a view to establishing some control over the rents chargeable for premises let to tenants, primarily in Calcutta and other municipal areas, has been going on in this Province since 1943 and so far there have been five products of that experiment. As each of the successive pieces of legislation superseded its predecessor, there has on each occasion been some attempt to adjust the new law to the old or to extend some of the benefits of the new law to those against whom the old law had already been set in motion. The question involved in the present reference concerns one such extension made of the Act of 1950.It arises in the following way.

2. The West Bengal Premises Rent Control (Temporary Provisions) Act came into force on 1-12-1948 and remained in operation till 30-3-1950. Under S.12(3) of that Act, a tenant who committed default in paying the rent accruing due from him after the commencement of the Act for three consecutive months, ceased to be a tenant and his interest in the tenancy was, by such default, ipso facto determined. Thereafter, he became a trespasser and if sued in ejectment, had no means open to him to a