SUNANDA RAMKRISHNA AYARE Vs. HARISHCHANDRA GOPAL PARAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are three applicants; they are the tenants. There are five respondents; they are the landlords. The landlords filed R.A.E. Suit No. 859 of 2002 for eviction, on these grounds: (i) arrears of rent (ii) sub-letting (iii) additions and alternations, and (iv) availability of alternative accommodation. But when the suit went for trial, the landlords gave up the last two grounds and proceeded with the first two grounds-that is, arrears of rent and subletting. The third applicant-defendant is said to be the sub-lessee.

(2.) On 26th February 2010, the trial Court decreed the suit on merits. Aggrieved, all the defendants filed Appeal No. 199 of 2010 before the Appellant Bench of the Small Cause Court, Bombay. But it dismissed the appeal on 05th September 2012. Further aggrieved, the applicants have filed this Civil Revision Application.

(3.) Shri Parab, the learned counsel for the applicants-tenants, has submitted that the husband of the first applicant and father of the second applicant was the original tenant. He died on 28th September 2000. Though the statutory notice was issued in July 1999, by the time the landlords initiated the eviction proceedings in April 2002, the original tenant died. Therefore, the landlords, according to Shri Parab, ought to have issued a fresh statutory notice to the original tenant's legal representatives. In other words, notice issued to a dead tenant would not bind his legal representatives who were sought to be evicted.