SYED MANZURUL-HAQ Vs. DULARAM PESUMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has come up before us on a reference by the learned single Judge before whom the appeal first came up for hearing.

(2.) THE material facts are that in a suit instituted by the respondent for the eviction of the appellant from a certain tenanted house, a decree for ejectment was passed on 31st July 1958. The appellant then preferred an appeal against the judgment and decree of the trial Court. During the pendency of that appeal, the Madhya Pradesh Accommodation Control Act, 1955, came into force on 1st January 1959. The tenant, however, omitted to avail himself of the benefit of any of the provisions of the Act and to urge that the landlord was not entitled to any decree for ejectment without establishing any of the grounds mentioned in section 4 of the Act. The decree of the trial Court was upheld by the appellate Court on 31st January 1959. In execution proceedings of that decree the appellant raised the objection that in view of sections 16 and 17 of the Act, he could not be evicted from the house in question, without the landlord establishing any of the grounds for eviction under section 4. The executing Court overruled the objection on the ground that as it had not been raised earlier the appellant was barred by the principle of res judicata from taking the objection. This view of the executing Court was upheld in appeal by the Additional District Judge, Bhopal. The tenant then filed the present appeal in this Court repeating the contention advanced by him in the executing Court.

(3.) THE reference must, therefore, be answered by saying that it is now not open to the appellant to resist the execution of the decree on the ground that it is not in conformity with section 4 of the Act. As the learned single Judge has referred the whole of the case to us for disposal and as the decision in the appeal turns on this question alone, the appeal is dismissed with costs.