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Judgment
P.N. Mookerjee, J.—This Rule arises out of a proceeding for assessment of compensation which forms a necessary sequel to a proceeding for ejectment u/s 9(l)(iii) of the West Bengal Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act. The compensation is payable under the proviso to the said Clause (iii) of Section 9(1).
In the present case, the decree for ejectment was admittedly passed on July 23, 1951. Thereafter, as the parties could not agree to the amount of reasonable compensation, payable by the landlord to the tenant, under the above statutory proviso there followed the usual or the necessary application to the court. The learned Munsif held that the tenant would be entitled, by way of compensation, to "the costs of making a new structure similar to the one which he has in the disputed land and for determining this compensation he directed the appointment of a Commissioner.
From this decision of the learned Munsif, there was an appeal taken by the landlord and the learned Subordinate Judge who heard the appeal has been pleased to hold that the tenant was entitled to compensation only to the extent of the costs of removal of the materials from the disputed land.
In my opinion, neither of the two extreme views, as taken by the learned Munsif and the learned Subordinate Judge is correct. The Act speaks of payment of reasonable compensation. The landlord is not willing to retain the structures. The tenant, therefore, has to remove the same. He will thus get the materials of the structures and the loss, to which he will be put may be reasonably computed as loss of the existing structure in its present state of value less the value of the materials, plus of course, the cost of removal. Then reasonable compensation must be assessed on that footing.
I, accordingly, modify the order of both the courts below and direct in lieu thereof that the commissioner will determine the amount of reasonable compensation to be paid to the tenant by the landlord in the light of the test I have laid down above.
The Rule thus succeeds in part and it is made absolute to the extent, indicated above.
There will be no order as to costs.