GOKULDAS PAGARIA Vs. PARMANAND CHAURASIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS second appeal, which has come up before us for disposal on a reference by one of us arises out of a suit filed by the respondent for the eviction of the appellant from a house situated in Jabalpur Cantonment area.

(2.) THE plaintiff respondent instituted a suit for ejectment on 15th July 1963 after giving a notice to the appellant terminating his tenancy No ground for ejectment, falling under Section 12 of the Madhya Pradesh Accommodation Control Act, 1961, or under Section 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Accommodation Control Act 1955, repealed by the Act of 1961, was averred by the plaintiff or made out at the trial. Both the courts below decreed the plaintiff's claim taking the view that when the suit for eviction was filed neither the Act of 1955 nor the 1961 Act was in force in the Jabalpur Cantonment area; that the notification issued by the Central government under Section 3 of the Cantonments (Extension of Rent Control Laws)Act. 1957, and published in the Gazette of India dated the 13th June 1964, extending inter alia to the Jabalpur Cantonment area the Madhya Pradesh accommodation Control Act, 1961, with certain modifications, was not retrospective so as to make the Act of 1961 applicable to eviction suits pending on the date of the notification; and that, therefore, the plaintiff respondent was entitled to eject the appellant after validly terminating the tenancy.

(3.) THE sole question that arises for determination in this appeal is whether the aforesaid notification has the effect of making the Act of 1961 applicable to eviction suits, pending on the date of the notification. It must be stated at the outset that the regulation of house accommodation. including the control of rents, in Cantonment-Areas is a matter with respect to which Parliament has exclusive power to make laws by virtue of Article 246 and entry-3 of List-1 of Seventh schedule to the Constitution. That being so, the M. P. Accommodation Control Act, 1961, or the earlier Act of 1955 repealed by the Act of 1961, though applicable to the whole of Madhya Pradesh, necessarily excluded from its operation the cantonment Areas in the State. Neither of these Acts was proprio vigore applicable to Cantonment Areas. In 1957 the Cantonments (Extension of Rent Control Laws) Act, 1957, was enacted by Parliament. Section 3 of this Act gives to the Central Government the power to extend, by a notification, to any cantonment with such restrictions and modifications, as it thinks fit, any enactment relating to the control of rent and regulation of house accommodation which is in force on the date of the notification in the State in which the cantonment is situated. It was in exercise of the power conferred by this section that the notification dated the 13th June 1964 was issued by the Central Government extending inter alia to Jabalpur Cantonment the M. P. Accommodation Control Act, 1961, with the modification set out in the notification. The modification material here is the omission of Section 51 (which was formerly numbered as 52) of the M. P. Accommodation Control Act, 1961, in the applicability of that Act to the cantonment areas. Section 51 of the 1961-Act is as follows -