Issuance of notice for termination of tenancy not necessary.

JUDGMENT.-The only question of law that has been argued in this batch of Civil Revision Petitions is whether a notice of termination of tenancy under section 106, of the Transfer of Property Act is required before taking action under one or the other of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1960. The facts which are common and which are rot agitated before me need not be adverted to. But the question has arisen in all these cases whether a notice of termination of tenancy under the Transfer of Property Act is required at all before a petition could be presented to the statutory authority under the Buildings Act for obtaining relief under the various provisions of the Act.

2. There is abundance of case law on this subject and at one time they were perplexing and apparently contradictory as well. I shall now trace the various decided cases to find whether in the view of the Supreme Court as laid down by them and reiterated by them later the provisions of the Transfer of Property Act still would hold the field and should be looked into for purpose of observance of some of its prescriptions before an application under the Buildings Act could be filed. I may at once state that having regard to the declared law of the Supreme Court such an invocation of the provisions of the Transfer of Property Act including that prescription in section 106 of it may not be necessary at all. The earliest ruling on the question is the decision of a Division Bench of our Court in Krishnamoorthy v. Parthasarathy1. There the learned Judges said that no notice determining the tenancy under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act (hereinafter for convenience called notice) was necessary before a landlord attempts to seek some relief under the special enactment, namely, the Tamil Nadu Buildings Act. This view was approved by another Division Bench of our Court in George Oakes Ltd. v. The Chief Judge, Small Cause Court, Madras2, but a controversy arose in 1966. In that case the subject matter was as to what ought to be the fair rent of the demised premises. But in view of the contentions of counsel therein a Full Bench was constituted and in M/s. Raval and Co. v. Ramachandran3, the question whether a notice is required before action is taken under this Special Act, was considered alongside with the main dispute in that case which related to the fixation of fair rent. The Full Bench again approved the ratio in Krishanamoorthy v. Parthasarathy1, and held that no such notice was necessary.

3. Whilst this was ruling the field, a decision of the Supreme Court reported in Maunjendra Dutt v. P.P. Roy Chowdhry 4 , made certain, observations touching upon the matter in issue before me namely, whether a notice was necessary at all before taking action under the Rent Act That was a case which arose under the Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act, 1949. While considering the provisions of that Act in juxtaposition to the provisions of the Transfer of Property Act, the Supreme Court would not agree with the decision of our Court which held the field till 1966, the basis of which was the ruling in if. Krishnamoorthy v. Parthasarathy4. There is undoubtedly an observation in Maunjendra Dutt v. P. P. Roy Chowdhry1 to the effect that the decision in R. Krishna-moorthy v. Parthasarathy2, cannot be said to be correctly laying down the principle in so far as the issuance of a notice under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act is concerned. Naturally, therefore, a Division Bench of our Court which decided cases under the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act followed the above decision of the Supreme Court in Maunjendra Dutt v. P.P. Roy Chowdhry1. and not Krishnamoorthy v. Parthasarathy2, and held that notice of termination of tenancy under the Transfer of Property Act was necessary before action could be taken.

4. Whilst this was the position, the decision of the Full Bench reported in Raval and Company v. Ramachandran3, (hereinafter

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