A successful pre-emptor is not bound by the tenancy created by the vendee after the sale in his favour.

R.S.Narula, J.

1. The question of law which calls for decision in this Regular Second Appeal against the judgment of affirmance given by the lower appellate court upholding the decree of the trial Judge dismissing the suit of the appellant for a declaration to the effect that he is not liable to be dispossessed in execution of a pre-emption decree against the original vendee who inducted the appellant as a tenant on the land in dispute, is, "whether a successful pre-em-ptor is bound by the tenancy created by the vendee after the sale in his favour?" In other words, the question is, whether relationship of landlord and tenant is or is not created by operation of law between a pre-emptor-decree-holder on the one hand and a tenant inducted by the vendee into the preempted property after the sale in his favour but before the decree in the pre-emption suit.

2. The undisputed facts necessary for deciding this appeal lie in a very narrow compass and may, first, be narrated. One Mansab Rai (hereinafter referred to as the original vendor) sold to Om Parkash (hereinafter called the vendee) agricultural land measuring 16 acres in village Shamas Din Chishti, Tehsil and district Ferozepore, on or about January 2, 1962. At the time of the sale, substantial part of the land was in the actual physical possession of tenants, such as Balbir Singh and others. After the sale the vendee inducted Hukam Singh appellant, to whom I will hereinafter refer as the tenant, as a lessee in a portion of the said property measuring about 2 1/2 acres. This is stated to have happened in Kharif 1962. Hakumat Rai respondent, hereinafter called the pr mp-tor, claimed possession of the property in question including the land in the occupation of the tenant on the basis of his right of pre-emption under the Punjab Pre-emption Act. The suit was decreed on October 24 1963, on condition that the pre-emptor deposited in Court the sale price of Rs. 6,000 by January 31, 1964. The requisite deposit was made and execution of the decree for possession by pre-emption was taken out in or about January 1964 by the pre-emptor against the vendee.

At that stage the tenant filed objections against his dispossession in the executing Court. His objections having been dismissed on February 17 1964, the suit, out of which the present, appeal has arisen, was filed on February 18, 1964, by the tenant against the pre-emptor for a declaration to the effect that the tenant was not liable to be evicted from the land in his actual possession as a tenant of the vendee in execution of the decree obtained by the pre-emptor against the vendee and, as a consequential relief, for an injunction restraining the pre-emptor from interfering with the actual possession or standing crops of the tenant in the said land. On the pleadings of the parties, the trial court framed the following issues: 1. Whether the suit is maintainable?

2. Whether the plaintiff is not liable to be ejected in execution of the pre-emption decree of the defendant against Om Parkash vendee?

3. Relief.

With the consent of the counsel for the parties the first issue was treated as preliminary and, after hearing arguments on the same, the trial court dismissed the suit of the tenant by judgment dated June 12, 1964, on the ground that the pre-emptor was not bound by the tenancy created by the vendee after the sale in his favour The tenants first appeal against the decree of the trial court having been dismissed on September 14, 1964, by the District Judge, Ferozepore, he came up in second appeal to this Court. In pursuance of the order of Dua, J., dated November 11, 1965, referring the case to a larger Bench, this appeal came up before the said learned Judge and myself on March 23, 1966, and we directed it to be referred to a still larger Bench in view of the importance of the legal question involved in the case. This is how the appeal has come to be argued before the present Bench

3. Mr. K L. Sachdeva, the learned counsel for