KASHMIRI PANDIT SABHA Vs. ORIENTAL GLASS WORKS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Initially, the petitioner-landlord had raised a plea of personal bonafide necessity as tenanted premises were required for holding Kirtan/Satsang and worship by general public and other various religious activities. In the course of the trial, the landlordpetitioner applied for amendment to include therein a plea that the tenanted premises are also required for housing Kashmiri migrants who had initially shifted to Jammu but had been compelled to shift to Amritsar thereafter.

(2.) The plea was negatived by the learned Trial Court by observing that the trial had already commenced and the petitionerlandlord had not been able to indicate why this plea could not be raised earlier by exercise of due diligence. Learned counsel, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, states that the Kashmiri migrants migrated from Jannmu to Amritsar after the filing of the petition and it is on that account only that the need to amendment arose.

(3.) It is apparent from the material obtaining on the file that the petitioner-Kashmiri Pandit Sabha (Regd.) raised a plea of personal bonafide necessity for a number of items including the user thereof for various religious activities. The provision for housing a person displaced from the native place is nothing short of a religious activity. Even otherwise, that ground became available to the petitioner-landlord only in the course of the trial. Though the trial has commenced, the evidence of the respondent/tenant has not yet concluded.