DILIP JOSEPH THOTTACHERY Vs. SABEENA LATHEEF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The common order dtd. 27/7/2021 of the Rent Control Court (Munsiff), Changanassery in Interlocutory Application No. 1 of 2020 in each of R.C.O.P.Nos. 11 to 24 and 27 to 29 of 2019 is under challenge in this Original Petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) The petitioner filed those interlocutory applications seeking an order directing joint trial of all those rent control petitions. The petitioner is the common landlord. The respondents are the tenants in the respective petition schedule shop rooms. The rent control petitions were filed seeking eviction under Sec. 11(3) of the Act. All the rooms form part of the same building. The grounds for eviction and also the defence of the respondents are similar. Therefore, the evidence to be let in all the cases would be identical. Pointing out those circumstances, the petitioner sought to order a joint trial.

(3.) The Rent Control Court dismissed the interlocutory applications, essentially for the reasons noted in paragraph Nos.25, 26 and 27 in the impugned order, which is extracted below: