JUDGMENT

BHAGWATI, J.:—Special leave granted.

2. This appeal by special leave raises a short question of law as to whether an order of requisition of premises can be continued for an indefinite period of time or it must necessarily be of temporary duration. The facts giving rise to this appeal are few and may be briefly stated as follows :

One Rukmanibai was the owner of a building bearing House No. 65, Police Station Road, Ville Parle West, Bombay. The ground floor of this building comprised a flat which was in the occupation of one N. C. Shah as a tenant and since N. C. Shah was going to vacate the flat, Rukumanibai gave intimation of the proposed vacancy to the State Government and requested the State Government to allot the premises to the appellant who was her nearest relative. The appellant also addressed a letter dated 12th March 1951 to the Chief Officer of the Accommodation Department of the Government of Bombay requesting that he should be allotted the flat which was going to be vacated by N. C. Shah. It appears however that the request of the appellant was turned down by the State Government and ultimately the flat was requisitioned by an order dated 9th April 1951 made by the State Government in exercise of the powers conferred under clause (a) of sub-section (4) of S. 6 of the Bombay Land Requisition Act 1948. This order of requisition did not set out the public purpose for which the flat was requisitioned. Now curiously enough, though it was decided by the State Government not to allot the flat to the appellant and his application for allotment was specifically rejected, the Assistant Controller of Accommodation passed an order on 25th April 1951 allotting the requisitioned flat to the appellant and pursuant to the order of allotment, the appellant entered into occupation of the flat. The appellant thereafter paid rent to Rukmanibai from time to time but the payment of rent was very irregular and the appellant committed several defaults in payment of rent with the result that not less than seven orders had to be passed by the Accommodation Department of the Government of Bombay directing the appellant to vacant the flat because of his chronic defaults. Ultimately, however, each time no action for eviction was taken by the Controller of Accommodation, presumably because the appellant must have paid up the rent. It is significant to note that in the year 1964 the appellant requested the Controller of Accommodation to derequisition the flat and to allow him to become direct tenant of Rukmanibai but his application was rejected by a letter dated 25th March 1964. The appellant also thereafter in the year 1979 applied to the Controller of Accommodation for sanction to erect a kitchen platform in the flat but this application was turned down by a letter dated 20th March 1979 addressed by the Controller of Accommodation. The appellant throughout this period continued to occupy the flat as an allottee under the order of requisition and paid rent to Rukumanibai from time to time, though irregularly.

3. The building in which the requisitioned flat was situate was purchased by the 3rd respondent from Rukmanibai on 30th May 1973. The 3rd respondent, after purchase of the building, requested the State Government to derequisition the flat inasmuch as the allotment of the flat in favour of the appellant could not be said to be for a public purpose. The State Government did not pay any heed to this request of the 3rd respondent with the result that the 3rd respondent was constrained to file writ petition No. 1210 of 1980 in the High Court of Bombay challenging the validity of the order of requisition and contending that it could not survive for such a long period of time and the State Government was therefore bound to derequisition the flat.

4. One of the grounds on which the validity of the order of requisition was challenged was that the order of requisition did not set out the public purpose for which it was made. This ground of c