CHANDUKUTTY Vs. GEORGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER applied for evicting the respondent-tenant from a residential building on the grounds that the rent was in arrears, that he bona fide required the building for the occupation of his son Ravindran who is depending on him and that the respondent had unauthorisedly sublet a portion of the building, grounds which fall under S 11(2) (b), S 11(3) and 11 (4) (i) respectively of the Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1965. While offering to pay the rent that was in arrears, the respondent resisted the petition denying the bona fide need claimed by the petitioner and the sub-lease put forward by him.

(2.) THE Rent Control Court upheld the grounds under S.11 (2)(b) and (3) and allowed the petition. Pending the appeal taken by the respondent he discharged the arrears of rent and that ground ceased to be alive. On the other surviving ground the Appellate Authority agreed with the Rent Control Court and sustained the order of eviction. THE respondent carried a revision and the learned District Judge set aside the decisions and remanded the petition for fresh disposal, by the order which is the subject of this revision.

(3.) THE District Judge has held that "bona fide requirement" is not the same as "bonafide need" (which is the expression used in the above subsection) and that a mere desire to get back possession may amount to bona fide requirement, whereas bona fide need can be established only if there is genuine need or necessity for the landlord to claim eviction. Lexicographically there is no such divergence between ''need" and ''requirement" as the following references will bear out: THE Concise Oxford Dictionary. Need: (n)...............thing wanted, respect in which want is felt, requirement. (vb)...............stand in need of, require. Require:...............Need. Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary. Require:........ ......to need. Webster's New International Dictionary. Need:...............to require, Require:............to need Requirement:......a need. Fowler's Modern English Usage. ...But requirement means properly a need, and requisite a needed thing. Eric Partridge's Usage and Abusage.