SOHAN LAL LAMBA Vs. S L KAPOOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Second Appeal was filed against the order, dated 22-8-1968, of the Rent Control Tribunal, Delhi, in Rent Control Appeal No. 1308 of 1967, dismissing the said appeal on the ground that it was barred by time.

(2.) The respondents herein, S. L. Kapur and A. L. Kapur, filed an application under section 14(1)(b) & (h) of the Delhi Rent Control Act in the Court of Shri P. K. Bahri, Ist Additional Rent Controller, Delhi, seeking the eviction of the appellant herein, Sohan Lal Lamba, on the ground that the appellant-tenant was allotted ainother residential quarter in the D.E.S.U. Colony, and had shifted there along with his family members, and for more than s months before the filing of the said application neither the appellant-tenant nor any member of his family was residing in the premises in question. Eviction was also sought for on the ground that the appellant-tenant had sub-let or parted with possession of the premises in favour of other persons. By an order, dated 1-12-1967, the learned 1st Additional Rent Controller upheld the contentions of the respondents herein, and directed the appallant herein to vacate, the premises and deliver possession of the same to the respondents herein.

(3.) Against that order, the appellant herein preferred an appeal, Rent Control Appeal No. 1308 of 1967, to the Rent Control Tribunal, Delhi. When the appeal came up for hearing, a preliminary objection was raised by the respondents herein that the appeal was barred by time. The appellant herein filed an application praying that the appeal be held to have been filed within time, and that in the alternative, the delay of about 13 days in filing the appeal be condoned. Shri M. L. Jain, Rent Control Tribunal, Delhi, by his order, dated 22-8-1968, held that the appeal was barred by time, and that there was no sufficient cause for condoning the delay. The learned Tribunal accordingly dismissed the appeal. It is against that order that the present Second Appeal has been filed. The two questions that arise for determination in this Second Appeal are:-