Termination notice must end with the tenancy month; an ineffective notice defeats eviction based on statutory tenancy.

A month-to-month tenancy can be terminated only by a notice that expires with the end of the tenancy month; a notice giving the correct period but ending on the wrong date is ineffective. The text also notes that, until the contractual tenancy is validly determined, the landlord cannot proceed on the footing that only statutory protection remains. On the factual aspect of reasonable and bona fide requirement and comparative hardship, concurrent findings in the landlord's favour were not displaced in revision because the revisional court was not to act as a second court of first appeal.

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Issues: (i) Whether the landlord had established reasonable and bona fide requirement of the premises and comparative hardship so as to justify eviction under the rent control law; (ii) Whether the tenancy was validly terminated by notice in law.

Issue (i): Whether the landlord had established reasonable and bona fide requirement of the premises and comparative hardship so as to justify eviction under the rent control law.

Analysis: The findings on reasonable and bona fide requirement and on comparative hardship were based on evidence on which two views were possible. The appellate court and the High Court had accepted the landlord's case, and the revisional court was not to be treated as a second court of first appeal. No sufficient ground was shown to displace those concurrent factual conclusions in revision.

Conclusion: This issue was decided against the appellant.

Issue (ii): Whether the tenancy was validly terminated by notice in law.

Analysis: The original lease was for one year and, after expiry, the tenant held over. The tenancy month, on the documentary record, commenced on the 10th day and ended on the 9th day of the following month. The notice, though giving the requisite period, did not expire with the end of the tenancy month and was therefore ineffective. In the absence of a valid determination of the contractual tenancy, the landlord could not proceed on the footing of statutory tenancy. The notice was thus invalid in law.

Conclusion: This issue was decided in favour of the appellant.

Final Conclusion: The decree of eviction could not stand and the appeal was allowed, with the eviction order set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: A notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy must expire with the end of the tenancy month, and until the contractual tenancy is validly determined a landlord cannot proceed against the tenant as if only statutory protection remained.

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