HC Deb 04 February 1942 vol 377 cc1234-5

(1) Where—

  1. (a) possession of part of the land comprised in a lease has been taken and is retained on behalf of His Majesty in the exercise of emergency powers and the lease has not been disclaimed;
  2. (b) possession of the remainder or part of the remainder of the land is on a subsequent occasion so taken and retained; and
  3. (c) the tenant cannot, on the subsequent occasion, serve a notice of disclaimer or obtain a direction enabling him to serve such a notice because possession of part of the land has already been taken as aforesaid, and in consequence the necessary conditions cannot be fulfilled;
the court may, on the application of the tenant made within three months from the date which is the material date in relation to the subsequent occasion, if in all the circumstances of the case it considers it equitable to do so, direct that the tenant shall be at liberty to serve, within such period as may be specified, a notice of disclaimer in respect of the lease, which, in the case of a multiple lease, may either be in respect of the lease as a whole or in respect of one or more of the separate tenements comprised therein.

(2) Sub-section (3) of Section one of this Act shall not apply to any notice of disclaimer served in pursuance of a direction given under the last foregoing sub-section, but the court shall not give such a direction unless the landlord is a party to the proceedings.—[The Solicitor-General.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

The Solicitor-General

I beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."

The object of this proposal is to deal with the case where a requisitioning takes place piecemeal, where you have two or more bites at the cherry, so to speak. In the end, the whole of the premises may be requisitioned, yet at any one time it may not be possible to say that the conditions for disclaimer are present. We hope to put this matter right by inserting the proposed new Clause. This is little more than a technicality to prevent certain difficulties arising.

Question put, and agreed to.

Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.