In Brief
Flora Elias Nahoum, a shop owner, sought to evict her tenant Idrish Ali Laskar from a premises in Calcutta on grounds including sub-letting and unauthorized construction. The Trial Court partly decreed the eviction suit, but the High Court dismissed it entirely. The Supreme Court held that the tenant had sub-let the premises in violation of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956. Although the tenant admitted a third party (Joynal Mullick) worked in the shop, he gave inconsistent explanations about whether Mullick was an employee or partner and failed to produce documentary proof. The Court inferred sub-letting from these contradictions and admission of exclusive possession by the third party. The appeal was allowed and the tenant given three months to vacate.
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