SARLA AHUJA Vs. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A widow wants to shift her residence from Calcutta to New Delhi to occupy her own building which is presently in the possession of her tenant - M/s. United India Insurance Company Limited. Though she got an order of eviction from the Rent Controller under Section 14(1)(e) of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (for short "the Act"), a single Judge of the Delhi High Court non-suited her by reversing the order. She has sought for special leave to appeal against the said decision of the High Court. Leave granted.

(2.) When she filed a case before the Rent Controller her husband was alive. By the time her case reached the stage of evidence she became a widow, but that did not affect her claim for eviction because it was not for the use of her husband that the building is required. At present she is staying at Calcutta in a flat with her son and his family. She is doing business, along with her son, in Patents and Trade Marks. In connection with the said business they have to be in Delhi quite often. The house where she is now living in Calcutta is on the third floor of a building which she finds it very inconvenient particularly on account of a knee trouble which she has developed recently. As the house in Delhi is on the ground floor of the building there would be no problem for climbing up the stairs. Those apart, her daughter is now staying at NOIDA which is on the outskirts of Delhi. The Rent Controller, after appraisal of the evidence, came to the conclusion that she bona fide requires the tenanted premises for her occupation and she has no other suitable residential accommodation in Delhi.

(3.) But learned single Judge of the High Court made a reappraisal of the evidence and reached a different conclusion by observing that "it was only when her husband (who was carrying on the business) was alive that she could urge the ground of wanting to live with her husband in Delhi." Learned single Judge pointed out that her relationship with her son and daughter-in-law is cordial and that her family is settled down in Calcutta for long. According to her knee problem learned single Judge noticed that she has recently moved into a new flat at Calcutta wherein a lift is provided and hence she need not much bother about that problem.