CHHOTALAL GIRDHARLAL GHEEWALA Vs. DISTRICT PANCHAYAT SURAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the judgment and decree dated 12/08/1988 passed by the Assistant Judge Surat in Regular Civil Appeal No. 36 of 1984 the petitioner-original tenant has filed this revision application. The learned Judge has allowed the appeal and remanded the matter to the trial Court for being tried in accordance with law.

(2.) It is the contention of the petitioner who is a tenant of the premises belonging to the respondent-District Panchayat Surat that the petitioner is entitled to get the benefit of the provisions of the Bombay Rents Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act 1947 hereinafter referred to as the Bombay Rent Act under Sec. 4(4)(a) and that the Civil Court has no jurisdiction to decide the suit.

(3.) In my view this contention is rightly appreciated by the learned Judge by relying upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kanji Manji v. Trustees of the Port of Bombay AIR 1963 SC 468. In that case the Trustees of the Port of Bombay granted a lease of the suit premises for a term of 10 years. It was provided inter alia in the lease deed that upon the expiration of the term if the lessees had observed and performed all the covenents they would be at liberty at their own expense to remove the buildings erected by them upon the demised premises on condition that the removal would be completed within three months after the expiration of the term. Thereafter in 1942 Trustees of the Port of Bombay granted lease of the premises to other persons. The Court in that case considered the provision of Sec. 4(4)(a) of the Bombay Rent Act and held that if Government or a local authority wants to evict a person from the land the provisions of the Rent Control Act do not come in the way and for the same reason the suit for ejectment does not have to be filed in the Court of small causes as required by the Rent Control Act but in the City Civil Courts as has been done in this case. The Court further dealt with the aspect that when on the basis of agreement a building is constructed what is the effect of Sec. 4(4)(a) and the Court held as under: