KRISHAN CHAND GOEL Vs. TRILOK CHAND JAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this appeal we are concerned with the construction of proviso (h) to sub-section (1) of section 14 of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (hereinafter called the Act) which runs as follows :-

(2.) The premises were originally let to the appellant tenant by the father of the respondent landlord in 1946. The pleading of the landlord was that the premises were ancestral property of the joint family of which the father of the landlord was the manager. When the father died in 1951, the landlord, his mother and his brothers who were members of the joint family collected rent from the tenant till a decree for partition was passed in 1955 by which the respondent landlord became the sole owner and landlord of the premises. The landlord filed the petition for eviction in 1964 on the ground that the tenant had "been allotted a residence" in 1952 within the meaning of the proviso (h) to section 14(1) of the Act.

(3.) The defence of the tenant was that the premises were let in 1946 to the father of the tenant and not to the tenant at all. Alternatively, it was stated that as long back as in 1952 the tenant shifted to the residence allotted to him to the knowledge of the landlord and the landlord was, therefore, estopped from evicting him in 1964.