MISRILAL PARASMAL Vs. H P SADASIVIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondents are the landlords of a house situate on Mamulpet Road, Bangalore in a portion of which the appellant firm is running a cloth shop as a tenant. That house bears three Nos. 135, 136 and 120. The portions numbered 135 and 136 are entirely in its possession. In so far as the portion No. 120 is concerned, it is admittedly in a dilapidated condition, and the appellant is in possession of only one room therein. The respondents made an application in the court of the First Munsiff at Bangalore under S. 8(2) (ix) and (xii) of the Mysore House Rent and Accommodation Control Act 1951 (hereafter referred to as the Act) for the eviction of the appellant on the ground that the house was reasonably and bona fide required by them for carrying out the reconstruction which cannot be carried out without the house being vacated and also upon the ground that the appellant has alternative accommodation of his own for locating his shop. Their application was allowed by the Munsiff who 'granted two months' time to the appellant to vacate the premises and deliver possession to the respondents. An appeal preferred by the appellant before the District Court was dismissed. Thereupon it preferred an application for revision before the High Court under S. 17 of the Act. The main ground upon which the revision application was based was that the portion of the house bearing Nos. 135 and 136 did not require reconstruction at all and that the object of the respondents in making the application for eviction was to reconstruct the building in such a way that the appellant would not be able to obtain the same kind of accommodation in the new building which it now has. The argument advanced in support of the contention was that under S. 8 (2) (ix) of the Act what the landlord has to establish was that it was esesntial for him to reconstruct the house and that the mere desire on his part to reconstruct a new building after demolishing the existing one is not a relevant circumstance. The decision of the Punjab High Court in Labbu Ram vs. Ram Prakash, AIR 1959 Punj 103 was relied upon on its behalf in support of this contention. The High Court, however, preferred the view taken in an earlier decision of the same High Court reported in Ram Chander vs. Kidar Nath, AIR 1954 Punj 135 which had accepted the view taken by the Calcutta High Court in Bhulan Singh vs. Ganendra Kumar Roy, AIR 1950 Cal 74. The argument advanced before the High Court is repeated before us.

(2.) We think that that was not a matter which was open to the appellants to raise in a revision petition under S. 17 of the Act before the High Court and consequently cannot be canvassed before us. That section runs thus:

(3.) Mr. Ganapathy Iyer who appears for the appellant, however, contended that since the respondents in their application u/S. 8(3)(a)(ii) of the Act had stated that the accommodation in the house after reconstruction may not be suitable for the appellant clearly shows that the respondents wanted to reconstruct the house solely with the idea of keeping the appellant out of the premises and that this was sufficient to show their mala fides. Since it was essential for the respondents to establish their bona fides so as to be able to take advantage of the statutory provision, the question of jurisdiction was according to him involved and that therefore it was open to the High Court to go into that question. Sub-sec. (1) of S. 8 provides that notwithstanding anything contained in any agreement or law to the contrary, a tenant shall not be evicted whether in execution of a decree or otherwise except in accordance with the provisions of this section or those of S. 7-C. Sub-sec. (2) provides that a landlord who seeks to evict a tenant in possession shall apply to the court for a direction in that behalf. This section empowers the Court to grant such permission if it is satisfied that one of the several circumstances set out in that sub-section exists. One of those circumstances is set out in cl. (ix) of that section, which run thus: