The Supreme Court has held that the new owner of a commercial premises does not have the right to evict the tenant if the lease has been extended by mentioning in the agreement at the time of sale of the building.

Clear intention
While setting aside a Karnataka High Court ruling, a bench of Justices A K Mathur and Markandey Katju said, “In the present case, there was a specific term in the mortgage deed dated 19.3.1980 that on redemption of the mortgage, the mortgagee shall become the lessee of the mortgagor automatically as previous to the mortgage deed. Therefore, there was a clear intention between the parties that the tenancy will continue when the mortgage is redeemed.”

“Hence, on this point we cannot agree with the High Court.

Accordingly, the impugned judgment has been set aside on this point,” clarified the judgement.