DEVASSY Vs. JOSEPH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision petition by the tenant invites investigation into the core of the concept of fair rent under the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, Act 16 of 1959, replaced by Act 2 of 1965, for short called the Act.

(2.) A room (hereinafter referred to as Door No. 322) had been let for Rs. 35/- per month by the respondent to a certain tenant in a commercially important area in Trichur. That tenant surrendered the building and, after keeping it for a couple of months, the landlord relet it to the petitioner in 1957 on a monthly rent of Rs. 100/-. Thus, there was a jump from Rs. 35/- to Rs.100/- in the price of the letting. The municipal assessment proceeded on a net annual value worked out on the basis of Rs. 35/-

(3.) Evidence has been let in to show that the municipal authorities had, acting under S.100(2) of the Kerala Municipalities Act, 1960, Act 14 of 1961, taken Rs. 100/- as "the rent that may reasonably be expected". The landlord also pressed into service Ext. D5, a rent chit dated 1-6-1961, executed by the tenant of a room adjacent to the disputed premises and somewhat similar in dimensions, wherein Rs. 101/- per mensem was fixed as the rent. In the same locality the municipality has constructed some rooms and according to the landlord R. W. 1, the rent of the municipal rooms (which are, according to him, smaller than his Door No. 322) is per room, Rs. 555/- per mensem in 1965. It has also been brought out in the testimony of R. W. 1 that the situation of the room in question, Door No. 322, is in a busy area where the municipal bus stand and the telephone exchange are located and the Railway Station road joins the municipal office road. In short, the landlord relied upon the prevalence of high rentals for similar accommodation in the locality and also the increase in the commercial importance of the place as justifying what he describes as the moderate of Rs. 100/-. The tenant, on the other hand, sought refuge in a circumstance very damaging to the landlord. Door No. 317 is a room adjacent to the disputed premises (No. 322) in the occupation of and owned by the landlord. The Rent Control Court has summarised the evidence bearing upon the municipal assessments and rents of these two rooms in the following words: