TULSI DASS AHUJA Vs. CHATTAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) C.M. No. 36056 of 2017 (exemption) Exemption allowed subject to just exceptions. C.M. stands disposed of. RSA No. 239 of 2017 and C.M. No. 36055 of 2017 (stay)

(2.) This Regular Second Appeal under section 100 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) is filed by the legal heirs of the one defendant and by the second defendant in the suit i.e effectively the appeal is filed by the two defendants in the suit. The appellants/defendants impugn the concurrent judgments of the courts below; of the Trial Court dated 16.4.2013 and the First Appellate Court dated 31.5.2017; by which the courts below have decreed the suit for possession and mesne profits filed by the predecessors-in-interest of the respondents, and who were the two plaintiffs in the suit. The operative portion of the judgment of the trial court decreeing the suit reads as under:-

(3.) Whereas the case of the respondents/plaintiffs was that what was let out to the appellants/defendants was only land and not a constructed premises, the case of the appellants/defendants was that what was let out to them was not land but was land along with four constructed rooms and one additional room being thereafter constructed on the suit premises by the appellants/defendants with the consent of the respondents/plaintiffs. The issue turns upon Section 50 of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') and which states that a civil court will not entertain a suit for possession if the tenancy is a tenancy which is covered under the Act. As per Section 2(i) of the Act, premises means any building or a part of building i.e for a premises to be premises within the Act what must be let out is a building or a part of building. Putting it in other words if what is let out is only land or land with some temporary construction, then what is let out is not 'premises' for the tenant to get protection under the Act. Similarly a tenant does not get protection of the Act if what is let out is land and the tenant is given permission to construct upon the land.