VASU Vs. KALLIANIKUTTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The landlord sought eviction of the tenant in O.P. 57/62 and got an order in his favour; but his petition for execution was dismissed as time-barred. In 1976 another petition for eviction was filed. The Rent Control Court allowed it. But the appellate authority thought that after the decree in the 1962 petition, there was no landlord-tenant relationship between the parties; and on that basis, it dismissed the eviction petition. The District Court took a different view, in proceedings under S.20. Hence this revision by the tenant.

(2.) The main point raised by counsel is this. The parties were landlord and tenant under a contract, prior to 1962 This contractual tenancy was terminated at the time O.P. 57/62 was filed. After such termination and during the pendency of the proceedings, there was only what is called a statutory tenancy. This too came to an end when the O. P. was allowed. Thereafter, there was no tenancy of any kind, no landlord-tenant relationship. The Rent Control Court had therefore no jurisdiction to entertain and allow the 1976 petition.

(3.) The expression "statutory tenancy" is something coined by the courts to explain the position of a tenant who continues to be in possession of the building during the pendency of Rent Control proceedings. Tenancy is strictly a matter of contract. If it is for a term, it expires at the end of the term. If there is no agreed term, it can be terminated by due notice. When the tenancy is terminated either by efflux of time or by notice, the landlord-tenant relationship ceases to be there. But still the tenant cannot be turned out of the building except under the provisions of the Rent Control Act where that applies. S.2(6) of Act 2 of 1965 defines a tenant so as to include a person continuing in possession after the termination of his tenancy. That is, even after the termination of the contractual tenancy he continues to be a tenant for the purposes of the Act. He will have all the rights and obligations of a tenant as defined in the Act, in spite of the termination of his tenancy. It is this peculiar position of his under the provisions of the statute that is denoted by the expression "statutory tenancy".