- (1.) Section 26 (F), Bengal Tenancy Act, as enacted by the amending Act of 1928, gave the immediate landlord of a holding a right of pre-emption, in the cage of a transfer of the holding by the tenant, with a few exceptions. When the Act was further amended the right of the pre-emption was taken away from landlords and given to cosharer tenants. In the present case, the facts are that when a cosharer tenant transferred his interest, in (sic) the opposite parties as landlords exercised their right of pre-emption, and obtained an order by which the interest of the cosharer tenants stood transferred to them. The other cosharer tenant has since transferred his interest to the petitioner, but the opposite parties have no longer any right of pre-emption as "landlords," since the law has changed. They claim, however, to have become cosharers of the tenancy as a result of the transfer to them of a cosharer's interest under the old Section 26F, and so, to be entitled to exercise the right of pre-emption which the new section gives to cosharer tenants.
(2.) The Court below accepted this contention of the opposite parties and allowed the application for pre-emption.
(3.) On behalf of the petitioners, Mr. Atul Chandra Gupta has contended before us that the landlord cannot in law become his own tenant; and so, even after the transfer to themselves of the interest of a cosharer tenant the opposite parties did not become cosharer tenants of the holding, but continued to be 'landlords' only.;