M/S Paul Rubber Industries Private Limited vs. Amit Chand Mitra & Anr.
Background
A landlady in Kolkata let out roughly 16 cottahs of land to a company, Paul Rubber Industries, under a 2003 "Tenancy Agreement" for five years, but the agreement was never registered. After the five years lapsed and rent went unpaid, the landlady issued a 15-day notice to vacate and, when the tenant did not leave, sued for possession. The tenant argued the notice should have been for six months instead of 15 days, claiming the property was leased for "manufacturing purposes" (which would trigger a longer notice period under the Transfer of Property Act), relying on the terms of the unregistered lease deed itself to prove this.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that because the lease was for a fixed five-year term, Section 107 of the Transfer of Property Act made registration compulsory, and an unregistered document of this kind cannot be used as evidence of the lease's terms or duration under Section 49 of the Registration Act, not even to prove the purpose of the tenancy, since that was the very issue in dispute (not a "collateral" matter, where an unregistered deed could otherwise be looked at). The tenant bore the burden of independently proving the property was used for manufacturing, and merely asserting it or pointing to a "factory shed/godown" description was insufficient: actual evidence of a manufacturing process was needed and was not produced. Since the tenant failed to prove manufacturing use through independent evidence, the tenancy was treated as month-to-month, making the 15-day notice valid, and the appeal was dismissed, affirming the High Court and Trial Court's possession decree in the landlady's favour.
Lesson Learnt
An unregistered lease deed for a fixed term of more than a year cannot be relied upon in court to prove its own terms (like duration or purpose) when that very term is the main dispute: a tenant wanting the protection of a longer notice period must prove the property's actual use independently, not merely by pointing to what an unregistered document says.