MANKUNWAR BAI Vs. SUNDERLAL JAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following question has been referred to this Bench for opinion:--"whether in compliance with the requirement of Sub-section (1) of section 13, is it necessary for the defendant-tenant to pay to the landlord or deposit in Court the amount of arrears of rent, the equivalent Citation: recovery of which has become barred by limitation and which the landlord-plaintiff on his part cannot recover by process in the Court?"

(2.) THE appellants' suit instituted in the court of the Fourth Civil Judge, Class II, raipur, was for ejectment of the defendant-tenant and for recovery of Rs. 648 as arrears of rent and Rs. 90 as damages for use and occupation. It appears that the plaintiffs claimed in the suit arrears of rent for the period from July 1, 1962 to Aug. 31, 1969. The suit was instituted on February 10, 1970, which means that the claim included partly arrears which had become barred by time. A notice of demand of arrears of rent and to quit had been served on the defendant on July 19, 1969, in which arrears had been claimed from as back as july 1, 1959. The tenant had paid Rs. 649, which the landlord adjusted towards the arrears from July 1, 1959, to June 30, 1962, and then claimed in the suit arrears for the aforesaid period i. e. , July 1, 1962 to Aug. 31, 1969.

(3.) AFTER the institution of the suit, the, defendant-tenant deposited Rs. 828 and it is not in dispute that this deposit was within one month from the date of service of the summons of the suit on him and it is also not in dispute that thereafter he continued to deposit regularly monthly rent as required under the second part of Section 13 (1) of the M. P. Accommodation Control Act, 1961 (hereinafter called 'the Act' ).