" "tenant" means a person by whom or on whose account or behalf the rent of any accommodation is, or, but, for a contract express or implied, would be payable for any accommodation and includes any person occupying the accommodation as a sub-tenant and also, any person continuing B in possession after the termination of his tenancy whether before or after the commencement of this Act; but shall not include any person against whom any order or decree for eviction has been made." On a plain reading of the definition aforesaid it is clear that a tenan~ even after the termination of his contractual tenancy does not become c an unauthorised occupant of the accommodation but remains a tenant. It has been pointed out by this Court in Damadilal and others v. Parashram and others(') that such a tenant is conveniently called a statutory tenant. Whether the expression aforesaid borrowed from the English Law is quite apposite or not, but, what is certain is that a person continuing in possession of the accommodation even after the termination of his contractual tenancy is a tenant within the meaning D of the Act and on such termination his posse·ssion does not become wrongful, until and unless a decree for eviction is made. If he continues to be in possession even after the passing of the decree, he does so as a wrongful occupant of the accommodation. Mrs. Seth in support of her argument rightly pre·ssed into service a few other provisions of the Act. Section 13 (1) giving protection E against eviction on the ground of default in payment of rent provides therein that even after the institution of the suit if he clears off the amount of rent due within a period specified in the section and thereafter "continue to deposit or pay, month by month, by the 15th of each succeeding month a sum equivalent to the rent at that rate" calculated at the rate of rent at which he was paying earlier, no decree for eviction can be passed. The conclusion is inevitable, therefore, F that if a suit is filed· on the ground of non-payment of rent after termination of the contractual tenancy, the tenant still continues to be a tenant liable to pay rent not only for the past period but in future also. In absence of a decree of eviction the person in occupation of the accommodation continues to be a tenant and is not liable to pay any damages as his occupation is not unauthorised or wrongful even after the termination of the contractual tenancy. In Damadi/al's case G (supra). Gupta, J delivering the _judgment of this Court bas said at page 653 with reference to the definition of tenant in ·section 2(1) of the Act:"The definition makes a person continuing in possession after the determination of his tenancy a tenant unless a decree or order for eviction has been made against him, thus H putting him on par with a person whose contractual tenancy (I) [1976] Suppl. S.C.R. 645.
