LALLAN PARSAD Vs. SHARDA PARSAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by a tenant against whom a decree for arrears of rent and ejectment from a house has been passed. No permission of the District Magistrate was obtained for the appellant's ejectment : the suit for ejectment was filed on the ground that he had wilfully defaulted in paying the arrears within a month of the receipt of a notice demanding the same.

(2.) It is admitted that originally the rent of the house in dispute was Rs. 16 per month. The case of the respondent is that by mutual agreement that rent was enhanced to Rs. 20 per month with effect from 1-9-1947 and that the appellant failed to pay the arrears in spite of a notice demanding the same. The appellant denied the enhancement of the rent from Rs. 16 to Rs. 20 per month.

(3.) The trial Court held that the rent had not been enhanced but the lower appellate Court held that it had been enhanced. The lower appellate Court attached importance to the fact that in reply to the notice demanding the arrears at the enhanced rate, the appellant in his reply did not deny or repudiate the agreement of enhancement. All that he said in his reply was that it made 'excessive demand' and contained 'incorrect allegations.' This does not necessarily mean that he denied the existence of the agreement to enhance the rent to Rs. 20 per month. He did not say anything about the enhancement or the agreement to enhance or the rate of rent in his reply. Had it not been a fact that he agreed to pay Rs. 20 per month with effect from 1-9-1947, he would have said so clearly in his notice instead of resorting to such ambiguous pleas that the notice made an excessive demand and that it contained incorrect allegations. The lower appellate Court was quite justified in inferring from the appellant's failure specifically to deny the alleged enhancement by agreement that the enhancement existed. When it said that 'the defendant did not reply to the notice repudiating the agreement' it did not mean that he did not give any reply to the notice ; it only meant that the reply, if any was given, did not repudiate the agreement. It is a finding of fact which is binding in second appeal that the rent was enhanced to Rs. 20 per month.