AMMAL CHANDRA DUTT Vs. SECOND ADDITIONAL DISTRICT JUDGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave by a tenant is directed against the dismissal of Civil Misc. Writ No. 12204 of 1975 by the High Court of Allahabad.

(2.) The second respondent became the owner of a house bearing Municipal No. 140 (old No. 94-A) in Hewett Road, Allahabad under a gift deed executed in his favour by his mother in 1945. However, even in 1944, his father had leased the house to the appellant on a monthly rent of Rs. 30/- which after some years was raised to Rs. 35/-. The house is a three-storeyed building and the appellant was residing in the first and second floors and running a drug store belonging to his wife in the ground floor. Some years later the second respondent's father leased out an adjacent building also to the appellant for being used for the drug store business.

(3.) In 1967 it became necessary for the second respondent to seek recovery of possession of the house because his elder brother, with whom he was living, asked him to find accommodation elsewhere. Therefore the second respondent applied for permission under Section 3 of the U.P. (Temporary) Control of Rent and Eviction Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the 1947 Rent Act) to the Prescribed Authority to file a suit for eviction against the appellant on the ground of urgent and reasonable requirement of the house for his own occupation. The Prescribed Authority rejected the application on November 10, 1967. After the 1947 Rent Act came to be replaced by the U.P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 (hereinafter the 1972 Rent Act), the second respondent again sought the permission of the Prescribed Authority to file a suit against the appellant but this time he sought for recovery of possession of the leased premises either fully or partially. He averred in the application that since his brother had asked him to vacate his house he had taken up residence in a single room in the house of one Srivastava and was living there in great hardship and as such he wanted to recover possession of his house in its entirety failing which at least a portion of it. The Prescribed Authority refused to grant permission on the ground (that) the application had been made within a period of six months from the commencement of the 1972 Rent Act and hence it was barred by Rule 18(1) of the U.P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Rules, 1972 (hereinafter the Rules). The Appellate Authority, however, differed from the Prescribed Authority and granted permission to the second respondent to recover possession of the ground floor portion of the house alone. Thereupon the appellant moved the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution for issuance of a writ to quash the order of the Appellate Authority but did not meet with success and hence this appeal by special leave.