ABDUL LATIF KHAN Vs. SHAKIL AHMAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a plaintiff's appeal arising out of a suit for ejectment of the defendant-respondent from House No. 118 situate in Cantonments, Meerut, for recovery of Rs. 182.00 P. as arrears of rent, Rs. 9.06 as meter rent and Rs. 25.06p as Bhumi Bhawan Kar. There was also a claim for damages for use and occupation at the rate of Rs. 1.00 per day till delivery of possession of the house in suit to the plaintiff-appellant.

(2.) The plaintiff claiming to be the landlord of the house in suit asserted that the defendant was the tenant there of on a monthly rent of Rs. 20.00, the tenancy started from the first day of each English calendar month ending on the last day. It was claimed that the defendant was liable to pay a further sum of Rs. 1.00 per month as meter rent and a similar amount per month as Bhumi Bhawan Kar from the 1st July, 1962. It was pleaded that a notice of demand and judgment dated 30th June, 1964 was sent to the defendant but he failed to pay the arrears of rent, meter rent and Bhumi Bhawan Kar and also to vacate the premises demised and hence the suit. Ejectment of the respondent was claimed on the allegation that inspite of the service of notice of demand as contemplated by Section 14(1) of the U.P. Cantonments (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1952 (Act No. X of 1952) - hereinafter referred to as the Act - the respondent willfully made default in payment of the arrears of rent within one month of the service of the notice upon him.

(3.) The suit was contested on the pleas that there had been no wilful default on the part of the defendant as the plaintiff had been continuously refusing to accept the rent remitted through money-orders to him; that the notice of ejectment and demand was not served on the defendant and in any case it was invalid. The defendant maintained that the plaintiff was not entitled to the meter rent and that a sum of Rs. 16.50p had been spent by him in the repairs of the hand-pump which he was entitled to adjust against the plaintiff's claim.