The East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 is a complete Code by itself and it is not necessary to import into this an additional condition for coming to the Controller for an order of eviction that the landlord should give notice terminating the tenancy under section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act.

Kapur, J.

1. This is a rule directed against an order passed by District Judge Sher Singh acting as an appellate authority under the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act of 1949. The petition as originally made was a petition lor revision hut was treated by a Bench of this Court consisting of the learned Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Harnam Singh as one under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution.

2. The facts of the case are that the landlord Bawa Singh filed an application under section 13 of the East Punjab Urban Rant Restriction Act for ejectment of his tenant Randan Lal on two grounds (1) of subletting and (2) of bona fide requirement and for personal occupation. The defence was that there was no subletting and there was no personal requirement and that no valid notice had been served on the tenant. The Rent Controller found that the tenant had not sublet the premises but that the premises were bona fide required by the landlord and that the notice Exhibit P. 3, which was given was valid. The tenant went up in appeal to the appellate authority, that is, the District Judge, and the only point that was argued in that Court was the validity of the notice of ejectment which the learned Judge held to be invalid on the ground that it required the tenant to vacate the premises on or before the 1st October 1950, the notice having been on the 12th September 1950.

3. A preliminary objection was raised that under Article 227 this Court cannot and should not interfere with the order passed unless it was shown that it was an order without jurisdiction. I am unable to agree with this contention because as I understand the power given by this Article is this that it is meant to ba exercised in cases where the Subsrdinate Courts clearly have done something which they are not entitled to do. The power must be used to keep the Courts below within the bounds prescribed by law for such Courts. I had occasion to interfere under Article 227 with the order of a Controller in--Nathu Ram V/s. Ram Partap, 53 Pun. L. R. 90. The power under section 107 of the old Government of India Act of 1919 was used for cases which were not covered by section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure but were cases of manifest injustice and illegalities. It is not necessary for me to define the limits of the exercise of power under Article 227. but I may just refer to the observations of Maclean C. J. in --Sukh Lal Sheikh V/s. Tara Chand, 33 Cal. 68 (F.B.), where it was held that this power of superintendence over subordinate Courts is analogous to that of the Kings Bench Division to interfere by mandamus. I would therefore overrule this contention of counsel for the opposite party.

4. The first question to be decided is whether the notice was a proper one. In my opinion it was. No doubt in the notice the tenant was required to vacate the premises by the 1st of October 1950. This by itself I do not think would invalidate the notice. I would here refer to the observations of Lindley L. J. in -- Side-botham V/s. Holland, (1895) 1 Q. B. 378 at p. 383, where the Lord Justice said : "The validity of a notice to quit ought not to turn on the splitting of a straw. Moreover, if hypercriticisms are to be indulged in, a notice to quit at the first moment of the anniversary ought to be just as good as a notice to quit on the last moment of the day before. But such subtleties ought to be and are disregarded as out of place." Their Lordships of the Privy Council in --Benoy Krishna Das V/s. Salsiccioni1, AIR 1932 P. C. 279, held that a lease from the 1st June 1921 for a term of four years ends on the midnight of 1st June 1925 and a notice given by the lessee on the 1st February 1928, for leaving the premises on the 1st March 1928, is a notice expiring with the end of a month of the tenancy. A similar view was taken in India in a recent case, -- Ram Palak V/s. Bilas Mahton, AIR 1952 Pat. 69 and in -- Gayaprasad Gan-patlal v. S. S. Munnilal Narayan Prasad, AIR 1952 Nag. 1