RACHAPUTI VENKATESWARALU Vs. K SUBRAHAMANYAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question that has to be answered in this revision petition is whether a transferee of tenancy can come on record as the appellant in an appeal preferred by the transferor-tenant against an order of eviction passed under the Andhra Pradesh Buildings ( Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act ( hereinafter called the Act ).

(2.) My answer to the question is in the negative. I will now proceed to my reasons therefor.

(3.) Before I do so, I must refer to the facts of the case. The tenancy relates to a non-residential building. The Ist respondent before me was the original tenant. The 2nd respondent landlord filed an eviction petition against him on the ground that he had fallen into arrears in payment of rent. According to her, the stipulated rent was Rs. 100 /- per month. But the tenant contended that there was no arrears at all since the rent was only Rs. 50 /-per month. All the same the Rent Controller accepted the landlord's case and ordered eviction. Against that order, the Ist respondent preferred an appeal to the Sub Court, Nellore in C. M. A. 16/1970. Sometime later the petitioner filed I. A. No. 287/1971 in the appeal for bringing him on record as the appellant on the ground that the Ist respondent had sold him the tenancy right along with stock in trade and goodwill. The petition was dismissed by the lower Court saying that such substitution could not be made. The aggrieved petitioner brought C. M. A. No. 156/72 to this Court. But a petition was filed on his behalf in C. M. P. No. 4928 of 1972 seeking conversion of the Civil Miscellaneous Appeal into a Revision Petition under Section 22 of the Act. The same was granted by me and consequently the matter is now before me in the form of a Revision Petition.