JUDGMENT
Ajay Nath Ray, J.
1. This is an application for a renewal of a lease which is due to expire in 1997. Under the terms of the lease now existing the lessee has an option for renewal of the lease for another 41 years from the date of expiry. The clause for renewal is the tenth clause. Though no official translation has been annexed to the petition, as it should have been, I may state here that the said clause is an option for renewal one month prior to the expiry. In the normal course therefore, the renewal would be asked for in or about 1997. The lessee in this application has however, said that he would like to have a certainty of a renewal just now so that he may be in a position to invest money on the land and bring up a building as he is entitled to under the fourth clause of the lease.
2. The prayer for renewal for 99 years has not been pressed before me because admittedly the renewal can be had for another 41 years only on the existing terms and conditions.
3. It has not been disputed that this Court is the proper court for seeking the requisite directions under the Administrator General’s Act 1963 for the purpose of obtaining a renewal in respect of the property in question and the lease under consideration.
4. No authorities have been cited before me.
In my opinion, an option for renewal for a lease one month before expiry, when no express words to the contrary are contained therein, is to be construed as an option given to the lessee to obtain its renewal at the latest one month prior to expiry. But the said renewal can be asked for even at a time prior to that. In other words, if the lease is renewable one month before expiry, such renewal can be asked for two months before expiry or three months before expiry or as in this case even 6 years before the expiry. There is nothing contractually wrong or harsh to any of the contracting parties in such an interpretation. It may be that in the instant case the lease in a favourable one to the lessee, the monthly rent reserved being only Rs. 25/- per month, the original lease being an old one commencing from 1956; but that will not be the case in each every lease and the law has to be declared as a general proposition which will be binding upon the contracting parties-lessors and the lessees in every case. No wrong is being done to the lessor in permit ting the lessee to obtain a renewal six years prior to the expiry ; when the parties agreed to an option for renewal for a further 41 years to be given to the lessee, in effect, the lessor chose to lea out the property for a total period of 82 years subject only to the option of the lessee himself. As. such the exercise of that option today is rather to be permitted than to be discouraged.
5. I am unable to rewrite the terms of the lease existing between the parties today. If the value of money has gone down and if the lease has become a more valuable property than it was in 1956, then it is a good fortune of the applicant who obtained assignment for himself in 1962. I have no jurisdiction or authority to interfere with that good fortune of the lessee-applicant. Nor is it in any way necessary. It must be remembered that whenever an option is exercised by a lessee, he binds himself to the contract for the further period and thus it is only a two sided bargain that is being extended in time ; the lessee extends his benefits as well as burdens.
6. The lessee has been in arrears from January 1988 in spite of the rent being so low as aforesaid. Even there the lease terms do not provide for an automatic forfeiture but it is provided in the fourth clause that if rent is in arrears for six months a notice of eviction may be served but that even after such service of a notice, the lessee shall be entitled to pay up the arrears within a month of service of the same. No notice of eviction having been served until now, the lessee is in a position to clear up the arrears. A draft for Rs. 1,100/- has been brought to Court and has been handed over to the learned counsel appearing for the Administrator General before me in Court. The respondent will be entitled to encash the money and credit it to the account of the lessee, without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties, in so far as their future relationship as lessor and lessee is concerned. In case any further sum of money remains as arrears of rent or of 6 per cent interest for unpaid arrears, the Administrator General as trustee will be entitled to serve a notice as agreed in that regard and take all other steps in that regard in accordance with law. It was not strictly necessary for me to see to it that some money be paid before a renewal is ordered but since the draft has been produced in Court, I have thought it better that the money be accepted without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.
7. Under the circumstances above, there will be an order directing the respondent to grant the petitioner a renewal of the lease on the same terms and conditions as are contained therein for a further period of 41 years commencing from the date of expiry of the lease now current. The petitioner will bear all the costs, charges and expenses of drafting, stamping and registering of the new lease by way of renewal. In case the petitioner extends all co-operation in this regard, the respondent shall execute the said lease by way of renewal within 3 months from the date of submission by the petitioner of the draft lease in which form the renewal is to be made.
8. All parties are entitled to have a signed xerox copy of the operative portion of this order on the usual undertaking.