| By section |
| ,12, sub section 1, of the (XXXI of 1950) as amended by Act XLII of 1954, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the Custodian may cancel any allotment or terminate any lease or amend the terms of any lease or agreement under which any evacuee property is held or occupied by a person, whether such allotment, lease or agreement was granted or entered into before or after the commencement of this Act". |
| The respondent who was the Custodian of evacuee property granted a lease to the appellants and subsequently issued a notice to them, among other things, calling upon them to show cause why the lease should not be cancelled for committing breaches of the conditions on which the properties had been leased to them. |
| The appellants contended that the respondent had no power to cancel the lease on the ground that under section 12(1) of the Act the power of the Custodian to cancel the lease could be exercised only so as to override a bar imposed by any law but not the contract under which the lease was held and relied on the language of the non obstante clause contained in the section. |
| Held, that the operative portion of the section which confers power on the Custodian to cancel a lease is unqualified and absolute and could not be abridged by reference to the non obstante clause which was only inserted ex abundanti cautela with a view to repel a possible contention that the section does not by implication repeal statutes conferring rights on lessees. |
| Observations in Aswini Kumar Ghose vs Arabinda Bose ([1963] S.C.R. 1, 21, 24) and Dominion of India vs Shrinbai A. Irani ([1955] 1 S.C.R. 206, 213), on the scope of a non obstante clause, relied on. |
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