Associated Hotels Of India Ltd vs R. N. Kapoor on 19 May, 1959
(See Associated Hotels of India Ltd. v. R. N. Kapoor(2). In
the case before us, however, while it is true that each
stall-holder is entitled to the exclusive use of his stall
from day to day it is clear that he has no right to use it
as and when he chooses to do so or to sleep in the stall
during the night after closure of the market or enter the
stall during the night after 11-00 P.m. at his pleasure. He
can use it only during a stated period every day and subject
to several conditions. These circumstances, coupled with
the fact that the responsibility for cleaning the stalls,
disinfecting them and of closing the Market in which the
stalls are situate is placed by the Act, the regulations
made thereunder and the licence issued to the landlords, is
on the landlords, would indicate that the legal possession
of the stalls must also be deemed to have been with the
landlords and not with the stall-holders. The right which
the stall-holders had was to the exclusive use of the stalls
during stated hours and nothing more. Looking at the matter
in a slightly different way it would seem that it could
never have been the intention of the parties to grant
anything more than a licence to the stall-holders. The
duties cast on the landlord by the Act are onerous and for
performing those duties they were entitled to free and easy
access to the stalls. They are also required to see to it
that the market functioned only within the stated hours and
not beyond them and also that the premises were used for no
purpose other than of vending comestibles. A further duty
which lay upon the landlords was to guard the entrance to
the market. These duties
(1) I.L.R. [1956] A.P. 515 at pp. 520-4.