COCHIN MEDIA CITY LIMITED Vs. JAIBE MARY CLEOPHUS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Eviction of the tenant was sought under Sec.11 (3) of the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act (for short 'the Act'). The rent control court allowed eviction. The appellate authority confirmed it. The tenant is in revision. The parties are referred to in this order as they are arrayed in the rent control petition or as landlady and tenant.

(2.) The case of the landlady goes as follows: The premises tenanted to the tenant was tenanted as per an agreement dated 12.5.2013. The respondent is conducting an institution in the premises. The name of the institution is Cochin Media School. Monthly rent is Rs.19,996/-. The petitioner needs the tenanted premises for starting a boutique cum tailoring shop. The need is bona fide. The petitioner is well versed and qualified in dress designing. She had undergone a fashion designing course from an institution called the National Institute of Fashion Design. She is without any room in her possession to do the business proposed. She requested the respondent to surrender the building. The request was not heeded to. RCR No.280 of 2017

(3.) The application for eviction was contested by the respondent. The relevant contentions are the following: The respondent has been running an educational institution called the Cochin Media School in the tenanted premises since May, 2013. The school is run not only in the petition schedule building but also in the remaining portion of the same building and also in the adjacent building. Without the petition schedule premises the respondent is unable to conduct the educational institution. The need alleged is not bona fide. It is only a ruse for eviction. The petitioner is neither well versed nor qualified to do the business allegedly proposed. She has not undergone any course in fashion designing. She has no intention to start any business. She is not capable of doing it. Herself and her husband are affluent. They have no necessity to conduct a boutique. The institution run by the respondent is the sole means of income for it and its directors. No suitable building is available in the locality for the respondent to shift.