GAURI SHANKAR Vs. RAKESH KUMAR AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant filed a suit for dissolution of partnership of a jewellery shop and rendition of accounts against Rakesh Kumar (Respondent No. 1), Maya Devi (Respondent No. 2) and Bal Mukund Verma (predecessor of Respondents). The suit was decreed in favour of the Appellant inter alia with a declaration that the possession of the suit shop was for the benefit of the Appellant and Respondent No. 1 as joint-tenants.

(2.) The Respondents filed two separate appeals which were disposed of by the first appellate Court vide a common judgment on 03.02005. In the said appeal, the declaration regarding the tenancy rights of the Appellant in the suit shop was reversed on the finding that the tenancy was surrendered by one partner. The first appellate court relying on the decisions in the cases of Kanji Manji v. Trustee of Port of Bombay, AIR 1963 SC 468; H.C. Pandey v. G.C. Paul, AIR 1989 SC 1470; and Harish Tandon v. Additional District Magistrate, Allahabad, AIR 1995 SC 676, opined that notice of surrender of tenancy given by one of the co-tenants and a decree of possession of the tenanted premises passed on that basis will bind the other. The first appellate court found that the tenancy surrendered by one of the joint tenants, even if without the consent of the other, would bind the other joint tenant.

(3.) Aggrieved, the Appellant filed a second appeal before the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi being RSA 146/2005. By the impugned judgment dated 02.12.2013, the second appeal was dismissed by the learned Single Judge on the sole ground that the question as to whether the tenancy rights could be surrendered by one of the joint-tenants without the consent or concurrence of the other is a question of fact and not a question of law much less a substantial question of law. The Appellant filed a review/recall application against the aforementioned impugned judgment before the High Court, which was rejected on 22.08.2014. The Appellant has challenged both these judgments of the High Court in the present appeals.