Sudhi Ranjan Das Gupta, J. - (1.) This is an application for revision of an order passed by the Subordinate Judge, Asansol. on an application made under section 46 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953. The learned Subordinate Judge refused to stay the suit under the said section. The present application is made for revision of the said order. The suit which is sought to be stayed is a suit filed by the respondents for khas possession of a colliery. The respondents are admittedly the proprietors of the said colliery. They granted a lease of the same to the defendant No. 1 and father of the defendants 2 and 3. On the 7th June, 1941, the lessee had granted a sub-lease to one Haripada. Thereafter Haripada transferred his interest in the said sub-lease to defendant No. 4, the Bengal Agency and Stores Syndicate of which the defendants 5 and 6 were the partners. On the 30th September, 1951, the said lease came to an end. This suit was instituted, after the expiry of the said lease, for khas possession. The original lessees did not at first resist the suit, but the suit was contested by the said Bengal Agency and Stores Syndicate and its partners. The contention of the said defendants was that there had been renewal of the said lease, the renewal having been obtained by the sub-lessees for and on behalf of the original lessees. The respondents after filing the said suit made an application for injunction restraining the defendants from cutting away coal from the said colliery. The learned Subordinate Judge who heard the said application did not make any order for injunction but only directed the defendants to file security for Rs. 5,000. Against that order an appeal was filed to this Court. The said appeal was heard by us sometime ago and we adjourned the said appeal and directed the learned Subordinate Judge to hear the said suit within the month of February last and liberty was given to the appellant to renew the appeal in case the suit was not heard within the said period. It was after the said order was made by us that the original lessee for the first time filed his written statement and therein he stated that he had exercised his right of option and the said right of option was exercised by the sub-lessees for and on his behalf. Having filed the said written statement at this late stage the lessee made the present application under section 46 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, and asked for a stay of the suit. The learned Subordinate Judge rejected the said application and thereafter the present application has been made to this Court for revision of the said order.
(2.) Before setting out the contentions of the parties before us it would be necessary to set out the relevant provisions of section 46, and section 39 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953. Section 46 reads as follows : "Where an order has been made under sub-section (1) of section 39 directing the preparation or revision of a record-of-rights, no Civil Court shall, until after the final publication of the record-of-rights under sub-section (2) of section 44, entertain any suit or application for the determination of rent or determination of the status of any tenant or the incidents of any tenancy to which the record-of-rights relates, and if any such suit or application is pending before a Civil Court on the date of such order it shall be stayed : Provided that in computing the period of limitation prescribed by any law for the time being in force for any suit or application, the time during which such suit or application cannot be entertained or remains stayed under the provisions of this Act shall be excluded. Explanation-In this section suit includes an appeal."
(3.) Sub-section (1) of section 39 of the said Act reads as follows : "(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (4) the State Government' may, for carrying out the purposes of this Act, make an order directing-(a) that a record-of-rights be prepared in respect of any district, or part of a district, or (b) that the record-of-rights prepared and finally published under Chapter X of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885, in respect of any district, or part of a district be revised, by a Revenue Officer in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter and such rules as may be made in this behalf by the State Government.";