AJAI AGARWAL Vs. HAR GOVIND PRASAD SINGHAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are the legal heirs of the respondent-tenant and the respondents are the landlord-plaintiffs.

(2.) One Jagdish Prasad, the father of the appellants in these two appeals was granted a tenancy of a shop room situated at Mohalla Bhoop Singh, Kasba Jaspur, District Nainital by the Respondents-plaintiffs at an agreed rent of Rs. 600/- per year. Since the shop room was in a dilapidated condition, the tenant requested the landlord to get the shop renovated and to fix a shutter in the shop but the landlord did not agree to such a proposal and asked the tenant to get the shop repaired at his own costs and consequently increased the rent to Rs.1,200/- per year. It is the case of the tenant that at the relevant time the tenant fell ill and could neither repair the shop nor fix the shutter as agreed till the year 1989 but the landlord insisted on payment of the increased rent at the fate of Rs.1,200/- per year since 1986. According to the tenant, the increased rent was to be paid for the improvement in the shop room but since the repair work could not be done till 1989, the landlords agreed to receive rent at the rate of Rs. 75/- per month instead of Rs.100/- per month. However, once the shop was renovated and the shutter was fixed, the tenant paid the rents at the enhanced rate of Rs.1,200/- per year.

(3.) On 21-5-1992, the landlord-respondents gave notice stating that the rent had not been paid from the month of October 1980 and demanded rent at the rate of Rs. 200/- per month from 1-4-1989 and thereafter at the rate of Rs. 400/- per month from 1-1-1990. The tenant duly replied to the said notice on 20-6-1992 denying that any such enhancement had been agreed to by him and also indicated that the rents had not been paid as the landlord had himself refused to accept the same. The tenants thereupon tendered the rent of Rs. 4,950/- to the landlord by money order at the rate of Rs.100/- per month, including house tax, since October, 1988. The landlord, however, refused to accept the same. On 24-4-1996, the landlord-respondents filed a suit for recovery of arrears of rent amounting to Rs.14,500/- and for eviction of the tenant from the tenanted premises. The amount claimed by the landlord-respondents towards arrears of rent was calculated on the basis that that the monthly rents were in arrears at the rate of Rs.200/- per month from February, 1989 and at the rate of Rs. 400/- per month from January 1990. The court of Small Causes (Senior Division), Nainital, decreed the suit upon accepting the case made out by the landlord-plaintiffs regarding the purported agreement for enhancement of the rents at the enhanced rate.