C SEKAR Vs. T NARAYANAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all the four Civil Revision Petitions, the petitioners are tenants and the respondents are landlords. For the sake of convenience, the parties are referred to as 'landlords' and 'tenants'. The issues in all the four Civil Revision Petitions are inter linked and therefore, they are disposed of by this common order.

(2.) The facts of the case are as follows:

(3.) The tenants filed counter statements and submitted that there is a dispute with regard to ownership of the property. The brother of the landlord/deceased Narayanan, by name Ramachandran, claimed 1/6th share in the rental income and an advocate by name S.K.Sundaram issued notice stating that if the tenants pay the rent to the landlords, it will not bind on the Arulmigu Prasanna Venkatesaperumal Devasthanam/temple. O.S.No.8304 of 1992 filed by Ramachandran/brother of landlord Narayanan, with regard to petition premises is pending. In view of the bonafide doubt about the ownership, the tenants are not paying the rent from May 1992. The landlords earlier filed R.C.O.P.Nos.1401 to 1403 and 1437 of 1992 for eviction of the tenants herein and other tenants namely, Krishnan and Babu, on the very same ground. The said R.C.O.Ps. were dismissed. Challenging the same, the landlords filed R.C.As. and Civil Revision Petitions and the same were also dismissed. In view of the dismissal of earlier R.C.O.Ps. filed by the landlords, the present R.C.O.Ps. are not maintainable. The petition premises belongs to the temple and one Radhakrishna Chetty, who was the trustee of the temple took the land on lease and put up superstructure and let out the same for rents to various third parties. The said Radhakrishna Chetty gave the rental income to the temple. He executed a Will dated 20.09.1986 bequeathing the property to his wife Chittibai Ammal for her lifetime and thereafter, to the temple.