Heritable tenancy rights under tenancy law depend on express statutory language; pre-1956 restoration right was not inheritable.

Under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, as it stood before the 1956 amendment, a protected tenant's right to recover possession from a landlord who had taken land for personal cultivation was not heritable. The Court contrasted the pre-1956 statutory wording with the earlier 1939 Act and the amended 1956 position, noting that the earlier provisions did not deem the tenancy to continue in favour of the heir or heirs. On that language, the restoration right under Section 37 was confined to the tenant personally, and the heirs could not enforce it.

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Issues: Whether, under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 as it stood before the 1956 amendment, the right of a protected tenant to recover possession from a landlord who had taken possession for personal cultivation was a heritable right exercisable by the tenant's heirs.

Analysis: The scheme of the earlier Bombay Tenancy Act, 1939 expressly treated the tenant's heirs as included within the expression "tenant" for the purpose of restoration under the relevant provision. Under the 1948 Act, however, the pre-1956 Section 40 merely required the landlord to offer to continue the tenancy to the heir or heirs of a deceased protected tenant, without a deeming continuation of the tenancy or any equivalent to the earlier explanatory provision. The Court contrasted this with the amended 1956 position, where the tenancy was expressly deemed to continue in favour of the heir or heirs. On that statutory language, the Court held that the right under Section 37, in the pre-1956 setting, could not be treated as a heritable right.

Conclusion: The right to seek restoration of possession under Section 37 was not heritable before the 1956 amendment, and the heirs could not enforce it.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the High Court's restoration order was set aside in favour of the landlords, with the Tribunal's decision restored.

Ratio Decidendi: The heritability of tenancy-related rights depends on the language of the governing statute, and where the unamended provision does not expressly continue the tenancy in favour of heirs, a restoration right conferred on the tenant alone is not inheritable.

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