- (1.) Admittedly, the petitioner herein was a subtenant under Narendranath Das, the respondent no. 4, who was a tenant under Supriya Saha & Tamanjan Saha, the respondent nos. 2 & 3 herein. The tenant, namely, Narendranath Das, filed an eviction suit against the petitioner herein for recovery of possession of the portion of the tenancy, let out to him by the tenant. The said suit which was registered as Ejectment Suit No. 716 of 1982 was decreed on contest on 10th July, 1985. Being aggrieved by the said judgment and decree passed by the Learned Trial Judge on 10th July, 1985 in Ejectment Suit No. 716 of 1982, an appeal was preferred by the petitioner (subtenant) before this Hon'ble Court. The said appeal being F.A. No. 10 of 1986 was dismissed on contest on 16th September, 1999. An execution proceeding has been initiated for recovery of khas possession of the suit premises from the petitioner (subtenant). The said execution proceeding is still pending. This is one chapter of this litigation.
(2.) Next chapter of this litigation starts with the following facts.
(3.) The petitioner (subtenant) now claims protection under Section 26(3) of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997. He wants to be a direct tenant under the superior landlord, namely, the respondent nos. 2 & 3, as per the provision of the said Act. Sub-section 2 of Section 26 of the said Act deals with the provision regarding service of notice by a pre-act subtenant to his landlord and the superior landlord for accepting him as a direct tenant under the superior landlord. For the sake of convenience of understanding, the provision contained in Section 26 (2) & (3) of the said Act are set out hereunder: "Section 26(2) - Where before the commencement of this Act, the tenant has, with or without the consent of the landlord, sublet any premises either in whole or in part, the tenant and every subtenant to whom the premises has been sublet, shall give notice to the landlord of such subletting in the prescribed manner within (two years) 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. Section 26(3) - Where in any case referred to in sub-section (2), there is no consent in writing of the landlord, and the landlord denies that he gave any oral consent, the Controller shall, on an application made to him in this behalf either by the landlord or by the sub-tenant within two months of the date of receipt of the notice of subletting by the landlord or the issue of the notice by the sub-tenant, as the case may be, by order, declare that the interest of the tenant in so much of the premises as has been sublet shall cease and that the sub-tenant shall become a tenant directly under the landlord from the date of the order. The Controller shall also fix the rents payable by the tenant and the sub-tenant to the landlord from the date of the order. Rent so fixed shall be deemed to be fair rent for the purpose of this Act.";