Part performance under an unregistered lease agreement does not by itself create a monthly tenancy or tenancy protection.

Acceptance of rent-like monthly payments under an unregistered compromise intended to create a sixteen-year lease did not, on the facts found, establish a landlord-tenant relationship. The compromise could operate only as evidence of part performance under section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, which protects possession defensively but does not itself create title or a tenancy. Because the parties' intention to create a tenancy was not shown from the surrounding facts and circumstances, the payments were treated as part performance of the compromise rather than as rent under an independent monthly tenancy. Protection under the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956 could not be claimed on that basis.

---

---

Issues: Whether acceptance of monthly payments as rent, after an unregistered compromise purporting to create a sixteen-year lease, created a monthly tenancy protected from eviction, or whether the payments merely evidenced part performance under section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act.

Analysis: The compromise was intended to create a lease for sixteen years, but no registered lease deed was executed. The compromise could therefore operate only as evidence of part performance and not as a conveyance of an interest in immovable property. Payments made by the appellant in accordance with the compromise satisfied the requirement of willingness to perform the contract and attracted the protection of section 53A, but that protection does not itself create title or a tenancy. The existence of landlord and tenant relationship depends on the intention of the parties, to be gathered from the facts and circumstances. On the facts found by the courts below, the rent-like payments were made in part performance of the compromise and did not constitute an independent tenancy.

Conclusion: No monthly tenancy was created by the acceptance of the payments, and the appellant could not claim protection under the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956 on that basis.

Ratio Decidendi: Acceptance of payments made under a void or unregistered lease arrangement does not, by itself, create a tenancy; a tenancy arises only where the facts show a clear intention to create the landlord-tenant relationship, while section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act confers only a defensive right of part performance.

---