MANEPALLI SITARAMANJANEYALU Vs. PACHIGOLLA KRISHNAYYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application arises out of a proceeding under the Rent Control Act. The tenant is the petitioner. The respondent landlord filed a petition for eviction on the ground of default in payment of rent for the month from 10th August 1949 to 9th September 1949 (H. R. C. 395 of 1949). This petition was not disposed of till 6-2-1950 when it was dismissed. Meanwhile on. 11-12-1949 the respondent filed another petition for eviction on the ground of default in payment of rent for the month from 10th September 1949 to 9th October 1949. This petition was allowed by the Rent Controller and the decision of the Rent Controller was affirmed by the appellate tribunal and the tenant seeks to have the order of eviction quashed.

(2.) Mr. Venugopalachari for the petitioner argued that till the disposal of the first petition for eviction, a second petition for eviction could not be filed, because if the first petition was eventually rejected, then, under the provisions of Section 7 (6) of the Act, the tenancy shall be deemed to continue. He relied on an unreported judgment of this Court in 'C. M. P. No. 4996 of 1949', in which a Division Bench to which one of us was a party construed Section 7 (6) of the Act. In that case an application for eviction was rejected. A subsequent application for eviction was made on the allegation that default had occurred and the tenancy became terminable before the date of the prior application for eviction. It was held that the second petition by the landlord was not maintainable having regard to the provisions of Sub-section (6) of Section 7. The 'ratio decidendi' of that decision was,

(3.) We asked the learned counsel who appeared for the landlord-respondent to give us some intelligible meaning of Section 7 (6) of the Act which would be of assistance to him, but he was unable to give any such explanation. Evidently the reason why such a provision was enacted was because once a landlord had exhibited an unequivocal intention to terminate the tenancy and the matter was 'sub judice' he should not be entitled to avail himself of the benefit of any default or other act of the tenant to serve as a foundation of a second application for eviction in case he failed to obtain the requisite relief in the first application.