AMBASHANKAR JADURAM TRIVEDI Vs. KARTAR SINGH GULAB SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Introduction:

(2.) Petitioner-Firm is the tenant, and the respondents are the co-owners. Before 1967, the firm was inducted as a tenant, and it continued to be so. In the course of time, as the building was dilapidated, it had to be demolished and reconstructed. When it was being reconstructed, the firm sued the landlords, seeking a declaration that it was a tenant and it should be reinducted as a tenant once the building was reconstructed. That RAD Suit No.225/1764 of 1967 ended in a compromise in 1969. Based on the consent terms, the trial Court decreed the firm's suit. One of the consent terms concerns the rent; both the parties agreed that it was Rs.1043.75ps per month.

(3.) Two years later, in 1971, despite the consent decree, the firm applied under Section 12(2) of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 ("Bombay Rent Act") for having the standard rent fixed. When that Application No.650/2071 was pending, within a month or so, the owners, too, filed RAE & R Suit No.982/5569 of 1971 for eviction. They sought eviction on the grounds of illegal subletting and the firm's unwillingness to pay the agreed rent.