MADHO LAL Vs. ROOP CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three second appeals arise out of three applications filed for the fixation of stnadard rent by the respective respondents in the second appeals who are tenants of the common appellant, Madho Lal, in all the three second appeals in respect of certain shops belonging to the appellant and situated in Ward No. XV West Patel Nagar, New Delhi. As similar questions arise for determination in the three second appeals, they were heard together, and they can be disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) The three tenants, Roop Chand, Ram Dass and Rawel Singh, filed three petitions on November 23, 1960, in the Court of Shri B. K. Agnihotri, Additional Rent Controller, Delhi, under Section 9 of the Delhi Rent Control Act No. 59 of 1958. The said applications were numbered as Suits Nos. 492, 489 and 491 of 1960, respectively. At the time of the filing of the said applications, the tenants were paying rents at the rates of Rs.40.00 Rs. 50.00 and Rs. 55.00 respectively, per month. The tenants stated in their applications that the construction of the shops was completed in the month of July, 1951, and calculating the rent on the basis given in Section 6 of the Delhi Rent Control Act, they prayed that the standard rents for the shops should be fixed at rates much lower than the agreed rates of rent. The applications were consolidated and heard together by the Additional Rent Controller. It was not disputed before the Additional Rent Controller that the standard rent for each of the shops was to be fixed under Section 6(B) (2) (b) of the Act, as the shops were constructed and let out after 1951. According to the appellant-landlord, the possession of the premises in question was handed over to him by the Housing and Rent Officer, Delhi. on June 20, 1951, on lease for 99 years, and he commenced the construction of the shops in question in November, 1952. The standard rent had, therefore, to be fixed according to the provision in Section 6(B) (2) (b). Under the said provision, the standard rent is "the rent calculated on the basis of seven and a half per cent per annum of the 'aggregate of the reasonable cost of construction and the market price of the land comprised in the premises on the date of the commencement of the construction." There is a proviso to the aforesaid provision, but, we are not concerned with the same in the present case.

(3.) The appelant, Madho Lal, stated as R.W. I that the construction of the shops was commenced in November, 1952 and was completed in1953. The Additional Rent Controller, therefore. took November, 1952 as the point of time at which the reasonable cost of construction and the market price of the land comprised in the premises was to be determined. The tenants examined one Kasturi Lal as A.W. 1/A, who deposed that he had purchased land in the area of the property in question at Rs. 21.00 per Sq. yard. They also examined one Channan Singh, Architect, as A.W. 1/B, who proved his report Exhibit A.W. 1/1, his plan, Exhibit A.W. 1/2 and a detailed estimate, Exhibit A.W. 1/3. He estimated the value of the land at Rs. 15.00 per Sq. yard. The landlord, Madho Lal, examined himself only, and he merely stated that he purchased the premises in question with the land at Rs. 5,542.00. As already stated, the land was not purchased by him, but was obtained by him on 99 years' lease. The Additional Rent Controller, therefore, on a consideration of the evidence mentioned above, accepted the value of the land in question in 1952 as Rs. 21.00 per Sq. yard as deposed to by Kasturi Lal, A.W. 1/A, and taking the value of the land as Rs. 21.00 per Sq. yard, fixed the value of the land underneath the shops of Roop Chand, Ram Dass and Rawal Singh, as Rs. 210.00, Rs. 265.00 and Rs. 260.00, respectively.