RATANLAL RAMGOPAL AGARWAL Vs. KURBAN HUSSAIN GULAMALI LAHRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The IInd Joint Civil Judge (Junior Division), Jalgaon, passed a decree in favour of the present petitioner (hereinafter, landlords) for eviction of the respondents (hereinafter, tenants) under section 13(1)(b) of the Bombay Rent Act (for short, "the Act") on the ground that the latter had erected a permanent structure on the suit premises without the permission of the landlords in writing. A decree for Rs. 380/- for arrears of rent and mesne profit was also passed. In appeal preferred by the tenants, the District Court reversed the trial Courts decree and dismissed the suit. Now the landlords have come up to this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution challenging the District Court decree.

(2.) The material facts that are no longer in dispute before me are these : There are in all 4 shops abutting a public road in Jalgaon town. There is common godown adjoining all these four shops in the South. Originally the tenants were holding the western two shops and the entire godown as month to month tenants. The rent per month was Rs. 45/-. On 25th February, 1966, the landlords sold the entire godown to the tenants by a registered sale-deed and put them in possession thereof as vendees. On the same day, petitioner No. 2 Shriram Ramgopal Agrawal who was at the material time the Karta of the joint family of the landlords, entered into an agreement with the tenants agreeing to sell all the 4 shops, including the two rented out to the tenants.

(3.) As the landlords did not execute a registered conveyance pursuant to the aforesaid agreement, the tenants instituted Spl. Civil Suit No. 8 of 1967 against the landlords in the Court of the learned Civil Judge, (Senior Division), Jalgaon for specific performance of the agreement. This suit came to be dismissed on 11th September, 1968 on the ground that the agreement entered into by the Karta on behalf of the joint family was not supported by legal necessity. The tenants carried an appeal from this decision to this Court which also came to be dismissed in November 1977. During the course of the hearing of this petition Shri Page for the tenants has informed the Court that they have approached the Supreme Court and their petition for Special Leave to appeal is pending in that Court.