Prohibited sub-lease cannot confer occupancy-tenant status where statutory protection excludes trespassers and adopts only protected sub-lessees.

A sub-lease made in breach of the prohibition on sub-letting under the Madhya Bharat Land Revenue and Tenancy Act, Samvat 2007 was treated as invalid, and the person in possession could be regarded as a trespasser under Section 78. The Madhya Bharat Ryotwari Sub-lessee Protection Act, 1955 protected only ryotwari sub-lessees within its defined class and expressly excluded a sub-lessee deemed to be a trespasser. Because Section 185(1)(ii)(b) of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959 granted occupancy-tenant status only to a ryotwari sub-lessee as defined by the 1955 Act, a person holding under a prohibited sub-lease could not claim occupancy-tenant status by reference to that later code.

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Issues: Whether a person inducted as a sub-lessee in contravention of Section 73 of the Madhya Bharat Land Revenue and Tenancy Act, Samvat 2007, and deemed a trespasser under Section 78 of that Act, could claim the status of an occupancy tenant under Section 185(1)(ii)(b) of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959 by virtue of the Madhya Bharat Ryotwari Sub-lessee Protection Act, 1955.

Analysis: Section 73 prohibited sub-letting by a pakka tenant except in the limited cases provided by Section 74. A sub-lease made in breach of that prohibition was treated as invalid, and the person in possession under such a sub-lease was liable to be treated as a trespasser under Section 78. The protection under the Madhya Bharat Ryotwari Sub-lessee Protection Act, 1955 extended only to ryotwari sub-lessees as defined in that Act and expressly excluded a sub-lessee deemed to be a trespasser under Section 78. Since Section 185(1)(ii)(b) of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959 conferred occupancy-tenant status only on a ryotwari sub-lessee as defined in the 1955 Act, a person whose sub-lease was void under the earlier Act could not derive that status.

Conclusion: The defendants were not entitled to be treated as occupancy tenants under Section 185(1)(ii)(b) of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959.

Ratio Decidendi: A person occupying land under a sub-lease prohibited by the governing tenancy law and expressly excluded from statutory protection cannot claim occupancy-tenant status under a later code that adopts the protected class by reference.

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