SUPREME COURT: NEW ACT WILL NOT TAKE AWAY RIGHTS ACCRUED UNDER REPEALED LAW UNLESS SUCH INTENTION IS EXPRESSED IN NEW STATUTE

The Supreme Court in the case Rajesh Mitra @Rajesh Kumar Mitra And Anr. Versus Karnani Properties Ltd., observed that the rights accrued under an old Act cannot be extinguished with the enforcement of the new Act unless a retrospective effect was given to the New Act.

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The bench comprising of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Prasanna B. Varale was hearing the present matter.

The bench in the case stated that so while deciding a tenancy dispute where the rights inherited by the Appellants or tenants under the Old Tenancy Act after the death of the main tenant were extinguished by way of the New Tenancy Act i.e., the provision of the New Tenancy Act was given a retrospective effect without making a provision in the New Tenancy Act regarding its retrospective application.

The court stated that to clarify, the Old Tenancy Act i.e., the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956 that in the event of the death of Tenant's, the tenancy devolved on the legal heirs of the tenant who ordinarily resided with him. Whereas, under the New Tenancy Act i.e., the West Bengal Tenancy Premises Act, 1997 the tenancy would devolve to the legal heirs of the tenant, but for a limited period of five years.

Therefore, the issue revolves around interpreting the phrase "for a period not exceeding five years from the date of death of such tenant or from the date of coming into force of this Act, whichever is later" used in section 2(g) of the 1997 Act.