BRAHMANAND Vs. KAUSHALYA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The defendant-tenant is the appellant and the appeal is by special leave. The landlord sued for ejectment on ground of arrears of rent as provided in Section 3 of the United Provinces (Temporary) Control of Rent and Eviction Act, 1947. S. 3 (1) (a) states, among one of the grounds of eviction,

(2.) We consider the construction put by the courts below on S. 7-C too narrow. The High Court has proceeded on the footing that a deposit under S. 7-C can be made only if the landlord refuses to accept the rent tendered to him or, if there is any dispute as to the person who is actually entitled to receive the rent. "None of the conditions existed in the instant case ...... and the plaintiff had asked the defendant not to deposit the rent in court but to pay her the same. The defendant was accordingly required to pay the rent to her, not to deposit the same in court. The deposit, accordingly, could not constitute payment of rent to the plaintiff and the defendant, consequently, was in arrears of rent ...... ".

(3.) As we have earlier pointed out, a liberal construction of the expression 'paid to him by a tenant' in S. 7-C (1) is necessary. Physically offering payment when the relations between the parties are strained is to ask for trouble and be impractical. But harassing the landlord by straightway depositing the rent in court without fulfilment of the conditions required by S. 7-C (1') is also unwarranted. S. 7-C (6) by using the expression 'where the deposit has been made as aforesaid' takes us back to S. 7-C (1). That is to say, the deposit is permissible only when the condition in S. 7-C (1) is complied with. If the landlord refuses to accept rent paid to him a deposit is permissible. But payment need not be by physical tender, person to person. It can be by money order, or through messenger or by sending a notice to the landlord asking him to nominate a bank into which the rents may be regularly paid to the credit of the landlord. If the landlord refuses under these circumstances, then a court deposit will be the remedy.