G. Ramanujam, J.

1. The petitioner herein is the tenant in respect of door No. 13, Madurai Road, wherein he is running a hotel business. The respondent herein who is the landlady filed a petition for his eviction on two grounds (i) wilful default in payment of the monthly rents and (2) bona fide requirement of the building for the purpose of running a hotel business by her son. The application for eviction was resisted by the petitioner herein on the ground that the relationship of landlord and tenant had come to an and as he had entered into an agreement to purchase the property and had paid an advance of Rs. 10,000 and that the requirement of the landlady far the purpose of running her son's hotel business was not bona fide.

2. The Rent Controller accepted the defence taken by the tenant that there is no relationship of landlord and tenant between the petitioner and the respondent after the alleged agreement of sale and that, therefore, there is no liability to pay rent at all subsequent to the date of the agreement. In this view he dismissed the eviction petition without going into the other question as to whether the landlady has established her bona fide requirement of t