( 1 ) RESPONDENTS Nos. 1 to 11 are the plaintiffs. Theyare the trustees of a public trust to which the suit premises belong. Respondents 12 and 13 are original tenants. Respondent 14 is the manager of defendant No. 4 who in his turn is the petitioner before us. The plaintiffs let out the suit premises to defendants 1 and 2 on 1st July 1966 Defendants 1 and 2 started therein restaurant business. On 10th July 1967 defendants 1 and 2 transferred to defendant 4 their business with stock-in-trade goodwill and tenancy rights in respect of the suit premises. On 26th December 1967 the plaintiffs terminated the tenancy of defendants 1 and 2 on various grounds and thereafter instituted the suit for recovery of possession of the suit premises. The plaintiffs urged before the trial Court several grounds on which they sought possession of the suit premises to which the Bombay Rents Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act 1947 is applicable. The learned trial Judge negatived all grounds except one. He found against defendants 1 and 2 that they had unlawfully transferred to defendant 4 their tenancy rights and that they were not protected by sub-sec. (1) of sec. 15 of the Rent Ac