Court caseAIR 1968 SC 620

The appellant held agricultural land as a tenant of the respondent landlord under the law of the former Gwalior State. When the landlord considered the tenancy at an end he did not file a suit; relying on a provision of the local tenancy law which he read as permitting a landlord to 'take possession', he forcibly entered and turned the tenant out. The tenant sued under the summary possession provision (then s. 9 of the Specific Relief Act 1877) to be restored to possession.

The Supreme Court allowed the tenant's appeal. A statutory power in a landlord to 'take possession' means to take it in accordance with law, that is by a suit or other lawful proceeding, not by physical force. A tenant who holds over after his term is in juridical possession, and the law, in the interest of public order, forbids his removal except by due process. The tenant was therefore entitled to be put back into possession, leaving the landlord to establish his right in a regular suit.