P DAMODARAM Vs. K LOGANATHA CHETTIAR AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Civil Revision Petition filed against the concurrent orders of the learned House Rent Controller and the appellate Additional Judge of the Court of Small Causes directing the eviction of the Revision Petitioner under S. 7(2)(iii), Madras Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act.

(2.) The facts are: The respondents Loganatha Chettiar and Shanmugham Chettiar are the landlords and P. Damodaran, the Revision Petitioner, is the tenant of premises No. 320, Wallatax Road, Park Town, Madras, The respondent has been the tenant of these premises for 24 years and is running a hotel under the name and style of "Neo Kerala National Hotel" therein. The monthly rent is Rs. 127-8-0. The landlords sought to evict this tenant from these premises on the ground that without their previous consent in writing he constructed a masonary overhead tank with a heavy dead-weight on the open terraced roof without providing proper support and has also illegally constructed a shelter close to the said tank on the open terraced roof and has started without the previous consent of the landlords cutting out the cement flooring at the main hall for putting up walls of brick in the first floor of the said premises which is an old one, for the purpose of providing three living rooms with a corridor passage giving access to the said rooms with the result that the cross calls of the said room come directly above the thin joists below carrying the terraced flooring and that by reason of these acts the value and utility of the premises have been materially impaired.

(3.) In Woodfall's law of Landlord and Tenant (24th Edn. ) (Sweet and Maxwell Ltd. ) p. 733, what constituted waste has been clearly set out as follows: