Abdul Hamid J:

The respondent is asking the Court to grant conditional leave of appeal to His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong against the order of the Federal Court made on 2 February 1979, and a stay of execution thereof until the appeal is heard and disposed of.

Mr. RR Chelliah, Counsel for the respondent, submitted that the appeal involves subject matter respecting property of value exceeding $25,000. and in so far as stay of execution this is necessary in order to maintain the status quo and not to make the appeal, if successful, nugatory.

Briefly, the facts are that the respondent is in occupation of the whole of the ground floor of premises known as 743 Penang Street, Penang, and carrying on there an eating shop under the name and style of Sri Kaliaman Vilas Restaurant since July 1974, under a licence in his name.

The appellant is the sub-tenant of the whole of the said premises and also the owner and licence holder of an eating shop on the ground floor called Nava India Restaurant prior to August 1971. The respondent occupied the said ground floor on April 1970, purportedly as sub-tenant and carried on the said business of Nava India Restaurant as lessee of the