P K VASUDEVA Vs. ZENOBIA BHANOT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since common questions of fact and law are involved in these civil appeals and as such they were being disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) In all these appeals the appellants are the tenants and the respondent is the landlady. The respondent herein owns a premises in the city of Chandigarh. There were four separate tenements in the said building, two of which are occupied by the two appellants herein. In the year 1975, the husband of respondent landlady who was a Government servant retired from service and on 5-1-85 he died. The State Legislature of Punjab amended the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'). By the aforesaid amendment a new Section 13A was added in the Act. The aforesaid Section 13A reads as under:

(3.) By notification dated 15-12-1986 Section 13A was extended to the Union Territory of Chandigarh. After this provision was extended to the Union Territory of Chandigarh the respondent landlady filed four separate applications before the Rent Control Officer, Chandigarh seeking eviction of the tenants under Section 13A of the Act. By an order dated 27th January, 1989 the Rent Controller passed an order of eviction against one of the tenants, namely, Dr. (Mrs.) S. K. Gill and subsequently on 15-3-89 the Rent Controller also passed an order of eviction against another tenant Bhupinder Singh. Dr. (Mrs.) S. K. Gill and Shri Bhupinder Singh preferred two separate revisions before the High Court against the orders of the Rent Controller directing for their ejectment. The High Court took the view that under the second proviso to Section 13A the landlord is entitled to recover possession of only one portion of the building and other tenants cannot be evicted. Accordingly the landlady was given an option to choose any one of the four tenants for eviction. Accordingly the revision was allowed. Consequent upon the order of the High Court the landlady gave her choice for eviction of Dr. (Mrs.) S. K. Gill and therefore she was evicted from that portion of the building which she was occupying as a tenant. This is the first chapter of litigation.