AIMAN Vs. NASIB CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Respondent-landlord instituted a petition under Section 13-A of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 for causing eviction of the petitioner-tenant from one residential room on the ground of non payment of rent and personal necessity. Admittedly, application for leave to defend was filed after expiry of statutory period of 15 days. This Court in civil Revision Nos. 5210 and 5211 of 2010 had passed the following order :-

(2.) Mr. Chetan Mittal, Senior Advocate, assisted by Mr. Mohinder S. Nain, Advocate, appearing for the petitioners has made valiant efforts to distinguish the above said two judgments. It is submitted that in Maharashtra Rent Control Act,1999, for the special provision, to cause eviction of the tenant, the powers have been vested in a competent authority, which is not a Court. Therefore, the competent authority cannot invoke the 1963 Act. Learned counsel further submits that whereas in the present case, the Rent Controller, Chandigarh, is a Court and therefore, has a power vested under the 1963 Act to condone the delay. Mr. Mittal further submits that in Prithipal Singh's case the question of delay was considered in the context of Order 9 Rule 13 read with Order 37 Rule 4 CPC and not in relation as to whether the delay can be condoned in filing of an application for leave to defend.

(3.) Having perused the judgments in Prithipal Singh's case and Parkash H. Jain's case , this Court is of the view that the arguments advanced by Mr. Mittal are not tenable and the same are to be rejected especially when learned Single Judge of this Court in Babu Ram v. Naresh Kumar, 2006 3 RCR(Civ) 789 has held that the Rent Controller has no power to condone the delay. This view is further reiterated by another learned Single Judge of this Court in Harnek Singh v. Paramjit Singh, 2009 4 RCR(Civ) 42. Another leaned Single Judge of this Court in Rajpal v. Gurdev Singh, 2007 4 RCR(Civ) 161 held in the categoric terms that Section 5 of the 1963 Act is not applicable as the Rent Controller is an Authority, deemed to be a Court, only for the limited and specific purposes.