JAMAL Vs. NAFEESU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Right to seek an order of eviction under S.11(4)(i) would be available to a landlord from the date of commencement of Act 2 of 1965 or from the date when the Act has been made applicable to the area notified by the Government under S.1(3) of the Act is the question that arises for consideration in this case.

(2.) A Division Bench of this Court in Kumaran v. Jose, 2001 (2) KLT 464 , took the view that a landlord would be entitled to an order of eviction under S.11(4)(i) of the Act only if he establishes that there was an unauthorised subletting of the tenanted premises without his consent after the publication of the notification making the Act applicable to the said area in question. Division Bench placed reliance on the decisions of the Supreme Court in Gurcharan Singh v. V. K. Kaushal, 1980 (4) SCC 244 and Tirath Ram Gupta v. Gurubachan Singh, 1987 (1) SCC 712 . A Division Bench consisting of K. S. Radhakrishnan, J. and Pius C. Kuriakose, J. doubted the correctness of the decision in Kumaran's case in the context of various provisions of the Kerala Rent Act and referred the matter to a Larger Bench for an authoritative pronouncement. In the reference order the Bench opined as follows:

(3.) There is no parallel legislation like Cantonments (Extension of Rent Control Laws) Act, 1957 in the State of Kerala. The Kerala Buildings (Lease & Rent Control) Act, 1965 was enacted to regulate the leasing of buildings and to control rent of such buildings in the State of Kerala. S.1 of the Kerala Act deals with short title, extent, application and commencement. S.1(2) states that the Act extends to the whole of the State of Kerala and S.1(3) deals with application of the Act to different areas and S.1(4) deals with commencement. So far as Act 2 of 1965 is concerned Legislature used the expressions "extent" "application" and "commencement". S.11(4)(i) has used the expression commencement of this Act and not the expression "application". Application of the Act to any area and commencement of the Act have different meaning and import so far as Act 2 of 1965 is concerned. Kerala Rent Act came into force on 1.4.1965. The application of the Act to the area in question in the instant case is from 7.8.1990. In this connection we may refer to S.1 which reads as follows: