Sudalaimuthy Chettiar v. Periyasamy and Others – sllr 1984 volume 1 page 235

In Sudalaimuthy Chettiar v. Periyasamy and others, the court addressed the liability of tenants for the destruction of leased premises by fire and the necessary standard to rebut the presumption of negligence. It was held that where a tenant has exclusive possession and a fire originates within the tenanted premises resulting in destruction, a presumption arises that the tenant is negligent. This presumption can be rebutted only by affirmative proof that the fire was caused by vis major, casus fortuitus, a latent defect, or an act of a third party. The decision reaffirmed the principle that mere conjecture or inability to ascertain the precise cause does not discharge the tenant from liability, with reliance placed on precedents such as Bastian Pillai v. Gabriel and Kulatungam v. Sabapathi