DILIP D. SHAH Vs. M.N. PRADHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is the defendant No. 4 in R.A. Decl. Suit Stamp No. 2398 of 1983 pending in the Court of Small Causes, Bombay. The respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are the plaintiffs and the respondent Nos. 4, 5 and 6 are respectively, the defendant Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in that suit. The plaintiffs who are the respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are the tenants of different tenements in a building known as "Kennaway House" situated at Proctor Road, Bombay. The petitioner is also a tenant of a block on the 1st floor of the same building. In this judgment the parties are referred to by their original nomenclature in this suit.

(2.) THE plaintiffs took out interim Notice No. 3052 of 1983 for an injunction restraining the defendant No. 4 from starting or opening any hospital or Nursing Home or Clinic in his flat on the first floor of the building. The plaintiffs' case is as under :-

(3.) IN support of the first point, the judgment of Vaidya, J. in Kishinchand and others v. Bai Kalavati and others, AIR 1973 Bombay 46, was cited. The landlord-trustees filed the suit for possession on the ground that the premises were required by the trustees for occupation for the purposes of trust. The trustees required it for the purpose of construction of marriage hall, clinic and hospital etc. It was urged that this requirement was contrary to Section 25(1) of the Bombay Rent Act which prohibited the use of residential premises for non-residential user. Vaidya, J. held that the use of the premises for non-residential user. Vaidya, J. held that the use of the premises for the aforesaid purposes cannot be called "non-residential use" within the meaning of the Section 25