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When a female ex-proprietary, occupancy or non-occupancy tenant who has inherited an interest in a holding under Section 24 or the female heir of a statutory tenant dies or surrenders or abandons such interest or in the case of a widow of class 2 in Section 24, remarries, such interest shall, notwithstanding anything contained in Section 35 devolve upon the nearest surviving heir of the last male tenant, such heir being ascertained in accordance with Section 24.

54. The whole controversy centres round the words "under Section 24" and their interpretation. Section 24 as stated above deals with the succession of male tenants and lays down an order in which the succession is to take place. In my opinion the words under Section 24" in Section 25, Clause (1) mean "from a male tenant." In order to attract the application of Section 24, the only condition that is necessary, is that the tenancy should have belonged to a male tenant. Then comes an order of succession laid down in Section 24 in accordance with which the holding shall devolve. In the old Tenancy Act also the distinction between a female tenant in her own right and one with only a life interest who had succeeded to the holding as the heir of the last male tenant did exist though it was not very clear and distinct. Section 22 of the old Tenancy Act (Act 2 of 1901) dealt with succession to tenancies. There was no separate provision in the old Act dealing with succession to tenancies of female tenants. The rule laid down in Section 22 was made applicable to the succession to tenancies of female tenants also. In the present Act, as stated above, there are separate provisions dealing with succession to tenancies which belong to male tenants and those which belong to female tenants. The rules relating to the latter are again divided between the rules governing succession to the tenancies to which female tenants succeed from male tenants and those regulating succession to tenancies which they acquire or hold in their own (right. Section 25, Clause (1) deals with the tenancies to which the female tenants succeed from male tenants, and Clause (2) with the tenancies which the female tenants acquire or hold in their own right. In the former case the tenancy goes back to the heirs of the male tenant on the death of the female tenant or surrender or abandonment by her interest in the holding, or in the case of a widow of class 2 in Section 24 on her remarriage, but in the latter case it goes to the heirs of the female tenants only on her death. Section 24, as stated above, deals with succession to tenancies of male ten-ants and the successors include females, i.e. widow and mother. The words "female exproprietary, occupancy or non-occupancy tenant who has inherited an interest in a holding under Section 24" in Section 25, Clause (1) mean a female tenant who has inherited her interest in a holding from a male tenant.