- (1.) THE constitutional validity of subsection (5) of section 30 of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) is the point which calls for my determination in this Rule. The respondents Nos. 4 to 8 are the owners landlords of premises No. 3, Convent Garden Road, in the town of Serampore. Since the time of their predecessor-in-interest, Akshoy Kumar Das, since deceased, one Ram Nazar Pandey was a tenant in the said premises. The said Ram Nazar Pandey inducted the two petitioners, as subtenants, in two different portions of the said premises and such sub-letting is said to have taken place long before March 31, 1956, when the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956 came into operation. Section 16 of the Act provides for notification of creation and termination of sub-tenancies and sub-section (2) of section 16, which is material for the purposes of this Rule, reads as follows :- " (2) Where before the commencement of this Act, the tenant with or without the consent of the landlord, has sub-let any premises either in whole or in part, the tenant and every sub-tenant to whom the premises have been sublet shall give notice to the landlord of such sub-letting in the prescribed manner within six months of the commencement of this Act and shall in the prescribed manner notify the termination of such sub-tenancy, within one month of such termination. " Sub-section (5) of section 30 of the Act provides for a penalty for failure to give notice under section 16 and is set out below:- " (5) Any tenant or subtenant who fails to give notice as required under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) of section 16 or intentionally furnishes information in such notice which is false in any material particular, shall on the complaint of the landlord of the premises made to the Controller, be liable to a fine which may extend to one thousand rupees. " Section 33 of the Act provides for a period of limitation for such complaints and is hereinbelow quoted:- "no complaint under section 30 or section 31 shall be brought against a person after the expiration of six months from the date of the commission of the act in respect of which the complaint is brought. "
(2.) ON January 10, 1957, the respondents Nos. 4 to 8 filed a petition of complaint before the Rent Controller, Serampore, against their tenant Ram Nazar Pandey and also against the two petitioners and several other subtenants in the premises alleging that Ram Nazar Pandey had inducted subtenants in the premises before the commencement of the Act but neither he nor the sub-tenants notified the sub-tenancy to the landlord under the provisions of section 16 (2) of the Act and as such rendered themselves liable to the penal provisions of section 30 (5) of the Act.
(3.) THE petitioners filed a petition of objection contending, inter alia, that the application was not maintainable in law and was also barred by limitation. The Rent Controller upheld the objection of the petitioners that the complaint was barred by limitation and dismissed the petition of complaint. The respondents Nos. 4 to 8 preferred an appeal against the order before the learned District Judge of Hooghly, who allowed the appeal and remanded the case to the Rent Controller for disposal according to law. The learned District Judge set aside the finding as to limitation with the following observations:- "section 33 lays down that no complaint under section 30, shall be brought against a person after the expiration of six months from the date of the commission of the act in respect of which the complaint is brought. The present Act came into force on the 31st March, and the complaint under section 30 was made on the 10th of January, 1957. Evidently, the complaint was not made within six months of the date of commencement of the Act. But section 33 which prescribes the period of limitation does not say that a complaint becomes barred after the expiration of six months from, the date of commencement of the Act. The limitation is six months from the date of the commission of the act in respect of which the complaint is brought. The tenant and subtenants have been given six months time to give notice to the landlord. It is obvious that no complaint against them can be made for the violation of the provisions of section 16 (2) within six months. It is only after the expiry of the period of six months that they can be said to be guilty of violation of the provisions of section 16 (2 ). The period of limitation provided in section 33 will begin to run from the date when the period of six months mentioned in section 16 (2) of the Act expires. " The petitioners moved this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution, praying for a Writ of Certiorari quashing the order passed by the learned District Judge.;