33. Tenant's right to purchase the rights of his immediate landlord in certain cases..
- If for a period of three consecutive years after the commencement of the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1951 (Tamil Nadu Act XXXIII of 1951), on every occasion on which the rent or any instalment thereof becomes payable by an intermediary to his landlord, the intermediary has committed default in respect of the payment thereof for a period of not less than two months on each occasion, the intermediary shall be bound, on the application of the tenant holding immediately under him and made within twelve months after the expiry of the last of the three consecutive years aforesaid, to sell to such tenant all his rights in the holding for a price calculated at twenty times the difference between (a) the rent payable by the tenant to the intermediary, and (b) that payable by the latter to his landlord:Provided that the tenant shall not be entitled to make such an application unless throughout the three consecutive years aforesaid, the rent or every instalment thereof payable by him to the intermediary has been paid by him before the expiry of a period of not more than one month from the date on which it became payable:Provided further that where the tenant is too poor to pay the price aforesaid in a lump sum, the Court may, on the application of the tenant, order that it shall be paid to the intermediary with interest at 5 1/2 per cent per annum in as many annual instalments, not exceeding twelve, as the Court may fix, having regard to the means of the tenant, on condition that sufficient security is furnished by the tenant for the regular payment of such instalments.
