Raja Azlan Shah J:

This is an appeal against an order allowing the appellants to defend the action on condition of paying $24,000 into Court and against a further order directing the counterclaim to be disposed of in an independent action.

The respondents are the chief tenant of a six-story building, which I will refer to as the said premises, situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. They claim that the appellants are carrying on business on the first floor of the said premises and that they had failed to pay rent for three months in 1965 and that they subsequently through their solicitors gave the appellants notice to quit but the appellants still remain in possession. The respondents therefore claim vacant possession, arrears of rent, double rent, and other consequential reliefs.

The appellants by their defence contend that they are carrying on the business of a first-class restaurant and night club on the first floor of the said premises; they admit that they had received the said letter from the respondents' solicitors but contend that the notice is invalid and bad in law. They allege that in pursuance of an oral agreement of August 1964 they became a sub-tenant of the