M RPUTTIAH AND Vs. MYSORE CITY MUNICIPALITY AND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these two petitions the respective petitioners occupying shops situated in the Devaraja Market, Mysore City, as tenants of respondent 1, Mysore City Municipality, have prayed that Section 20 of Act 30 of 1951 (the Mysore House Rent and Accommodation Control Act, 1951) be declared void and [or the issue of a writ of certiorari or other appropriate writ or order or direction to quash the notification of respondent 2, i.e., the State Government, bearing No. 797 dated 2-11-1951 exempting houses owned by any local authority or muzrai institution from all the provisions of the Act.

(2.) It may be mentioned that Section 20 of the Act authorises the State Government by notification in the Mysore Gazette to exempt any house or class of houses from all or any of the provisions of the Act and that the notification referred to above has been issued in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 20.

(3.) The petitioners' case is that they have been tenants in occupation of the shop premises for many years under the Municipality and taking advantage of the exemption granted in the above mentioned notification the Municipality has filed suits against them for eviction in the Civil Court which it would not have been able to do under the provisions of the House Rent and Accommodation Control Act, 1951. The petitioners contend that Section 20 empowering Government to grant exemption to a house or class of houses vests unregulated and arbitrary powers in the hands of Government and as it enables discrimination it offends Article 14 of the Constitution and is therefore void. It is further contended that even assuming that Section 20 itself is not void, the notification goes beyond the scope of Section 20 and the exemption granted under the notification is unrelated to the policy and object of the Act and is clearly discriminatory and has therefore to be struck down as unconstitutional.