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Judgment
Sankar Prasad Mitra, J.—This Rule is not opposed.
The Defendants were under the statutory obligation of depositing rent month by month u/s 17(1) of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act of 1956. It appears that the rent for December 1965 should have been deposited on or before January 15, 1966, but instead of depositing it on January 15, 1966 the Defendants made the deposit on January 17, 1966.
The first Additional Munsif at Alipore has held that the Defendants have violated the provisions of Section 17(1) by not depositing the amount on or before January 15, 1966, and has struck out the defence against delivery of possession by an order made by him on June 28, 1967. This Rule has been obtained against that order. The Rule was initially heard by Amiya Kumar Mookerji J. His Lordship by an order dated May 24, 1971, has referred the case to the Division Bench on the ground that there are differences of opinion in this Court on the applicability of the maxim de minimis nori curet lex to such cases.
Mr. Ghose appearing for the Petitioners before us does not rely on this maxim at all. His contention is that the deposit made on January 17, 1966, should be deemed to be one required to be made on January 15, 1966, inasmuch as the Court did not sit for the whole day on the 15th which was a Saturday. The fact that the Court concerned did not sit for the whole day on January 15, 1966, does not appear to be in dispute. Our attention has also been drawn to Sub-rule (3) of Rule 1 of the Civil Rules and Orders of this Court which prescribes that Courts may close at 2 p.m. on Saturday, if the state of the work permits. On the facts of this case it seems to us that the deposit made on January 17 should be deemed to be a deposit in discharge of the Defendants'' statutory liability u/s 17 of the said Act by reason of the explanation to Section 4 of the Limitation Act, 1963. The explanation says that a Court shall be deemed to be closed on any day within the meaning of this section if, during any part of its normal working hours, it remains closed on that date. In this view of the matter, the order, being Order No. 58 of June 28, 1967, of the First Additional Munsif of Alipore has to be set aside.
In the result, the Rule is made absolute and the order challenged herein is set aside.
There will be no order as to costs.
S.K. Datta, J.
I agree