M. P. SURESH BABU Vs. SOBHA RAJAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The main issue that arises for consideration in this Rent Control Revision is as to whether protection under Sec. 11(17) of the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act,1965 (hereinafter referred to for short as 'the Act') is available to the legal heirs of a tenant, who was in continuous occupation of the building prior to 1/4/1940 or not.

(2.) This Rent Control Revision is filed by the revision petitioner/tenant challenging the concurrent finding of order of eviction under Sec. 11(3) of the Act on the bona fide need of the son of the landlady. The respondent/landlady is the owner of a building consisting of a room on the ground floor and a room on the upstairs. The tenant is in occupation of the petition schedule premises under a registered kychit No. 229/1981 of SRO, Vatakara executed by him in favour of the erstwhile owner viz.,Narayani, who is the mother of the landlady. The tenant paid the rent up to December 2015 to Narayani and on her death, the petition schedule premises devolved upon the respondent herein- landlady as per the terms of the registered Will executed by Narayani. Though notice was issued by the landlady, the rent was kept in arrears from January 2016. On the death of the husband of the landlady, the landlady wanted her son Rimeesh Rajan, who holds Masters Degree in Engineering in Computer Sciences, working in UAE for nine years to come and stay with the landlady.

(3.) The landlady and her children have inherited a building consisting of seven rooms from her husband. Six among those rooms are occupied by tenants and one room bearing door No.30/382 in the said building was left unoccupied due to the dilapidated condition of the room. Room No.30/382, lying vacant is a small room and was not suitable for starting sales of the computer peripherals and computer service centre. The total rent income of the landlady and her children from the said building is Rs.5,200.00 per month. In order to raise her income, the petitioner's son Sri.Rimeesh Rajan decided to come back and settle in his home town and the petitioner and her son had a bona fide need to start business dealing in Computer systems, computer hardware, peripherals and accessories and a computer service centre in the petition schedule premises. According to the landlady, the room on the ground floor is required for sales and the room on the upstairs is required for the service centre. It is also submitted that several shop rooms are available in the locality for the tenant to relocate his business and the tenant is not depending on the income from the petition schedule premises for his livelihood.