ANANNYA CHOWDHURY Vs. RANJIT KR BOSE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are the tenants in respect of a ground floor shop room measuring about 600 sq. ft. in the front portion of the premises No. HA-3 Bidhannagar, Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700097 under the opposite parties. The terms and conditions of such tenancy of the defendants are contained in the tenancy agreement executed between the parties on 1st July, 2003. The said tenancy agreement contains an arbitration clause to the following effect:

(2.) Initially a dispute was cropped up between the parties as the landlords refused to accept rent from the tenants since July, 2007. Under such circumstances, the tenants approached the Rent Controller for depositing the rent before the Rent Controller as per Section 21 of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997. The landlords objected to the maintainability of the said proceeding by referring to the aforesaid arbitration clause contained in the said tenancy agreement. The said objection was ultimately sustained and the said proceeding was, thus, disposed of by holding inter alia that this cause is not fit to be considered and/or continued to be treated under Section 21 of the said Act and if such proceeding is continued then such continuation would be bad in law, as the matter is being perused through respective arbitrators as per their agreement. The said order was passed by taking note of the fact that the parties have already appointed their respective arbitrators for resolving the said dispute in the meantime.

(3.) Subsequently, the tenants filed an application under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act seeking injunction for protecting their possession of their tenancy and for enjoying various amenities annexed to the said tenancy uninterruptedly. Such application was filed as the landlords allegedly were creating various types of obstructions in the use and enjoyment of the said tenancy and/or various amenities annexed to such tenancy by the tenants. The said proceeding being Misc. Case No. 413 of 2005 was disposed of by the learned District Judge vide Order No. 19, whereby the landlords were directed to maintain status quo in respect of the disputed property till 8th August, 2007 and the tenants were directed to refer the dispute to the arbitrators to be appointed in terms of the said arbitration clause contained in the said agreement with a further rider that if the tenants fail to appoint any arbitrator in terms of the said agreement, the order of status quo will remain vacated automatically from 9th august, 2007. The said application was, thus, allowed.