KIRAN THAPA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have heard three appeals. One, (WA No. 45 of 2024) is by the association of tenants/lessees under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, in Shillong district. The other two (WA No. 44 of 2024 and WA No. 57 of 2024) are by two individual lessees, under this Ministry.

(2.) In Shillong district there is a large parcel of land which is in the custody of the said Ministry and has been let out to tenants/lessees, for a long period of time spanning more than a century. Periodically, the rent has been revised by the government. Whatever may have been the principle on which this revision was made, up to March, 2022, the rent for about 3,000 square feet (300 square metres) was only Rs.3.00 per month. There is a formula by which the market value of a tract of property is determined by this Ministry. It is known as Standard Rent Determination, based on various locational and utilization factors like main road, motorable road, non-motorable road, commercial use, use as petrol pump, cinema hall and so on. Two and half per cent of the market value is taken as the annual value of the property of which 1/12 is the monthly rent.

(3.) Now, a demand notice dtd. 17/6/2022 was issued by the Shillong Cantonment Board the respondent No.3 to Bala Krishna Thapa, occupant of Holding No.49 JB, Sy.No.135/74 Shillong Cantonment claiming an increased amount of rent in advance for the period 1/4/2022 to December, 2022 on the basis of Standard Rent Determination made by the Ministry. Up to 1/3/2022, the lease rent paid was Rs.3.00 for the whole property. Under the demand notice from 1/4/2022 to 31/12/2022 (9 months), Rs.1,18,823.00 rent was demanded as a condition for further extension of the lease. This meant that around Rs.13000.00 per month was all of a sudden claimed as lease rental for the property.