Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra and P.C.Pant, JJ, were hearing a reference to decide the question as to whether after the expiry of the fixed term tenancy in respect of an agricultural lease under the Punjab Security of Land Tenure Act, 1953, the tenancy gets automatically terminated and the person occupying the leased premises ceases to be a tenant, as a 2-judge bench did not agree with the decision of a coordinate bench in Sukhdev Singh v. Puran , (2015) 12 SCC 344 where it was held that tenant under the 1953 Act ceases to be one on expiry of the fixed term tenancy under the contract whereafter he is not entitled to the statutory protection from eviction as envisaged under the Act.
The Court held that to be entitled to protection from eviction under the 1953 Act any person claiming such protection has to come within the fold of the expression “tenant” under the 1953 Act read with the relevant provisions of the Punjab tenancy Act, 1887 Act. Statutory protection would be available only to a statutory tenant, namely, a tenant under the Act. The 1953 Act read with the relevant provisions of the 1887 Act does not include a tenant whose lease has expired. Nevertheless, retention/continuance of possession after expiry of the duration of the lease with the consent of the landlord will continue to vest in the erstwhile tenant the same status on the principle of holding over.
The Court, further held that such continuance even after expiry of the deemed period of the lease under Section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1888 would clothe the occupant with the status of a tenant under the Act in view of Section 116 of the Transfer of Property Act which deals with the consequences of holding over. The operation of Section 116 of the Transfer of Property Act would confer legitimacy to the possession of the tenant even after the termination or expiration of the deemed period of the lease so as to confer on him a status akin to that of a statutory tenant and hence protection from eviction as envisaged by the provisions of the Act of 1953. [Shyam Lal v. Deepa Dass Chela Ram Chela Garib Dass, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 661, decided on 05.07.2016]
