MANINDER PAL SINGH Vs. RUPINDER PAL KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CM No.13696-CII of 2024 By way of present application filed under Sec. 151 CPC, prayer has been made for preponement of date of hearing of the main case, which is already fixed for 19/12/2024. Notice of the application. Learned counsel representing the respondent accepts notice and raises no objection to the prayer made in the present application. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the contents of the application, the same is allowed. The date of hearing of the main case is preponed and the same is taken up today for final disposal. CR No.2515 of 2024 (O&M)

(2.) Briefly stating, the respondent-landlady filed Rent Petition seeking eviction of the petitioner- tenant while invoking Sec. 20 of the Punjab Rent Act, 1995 (hereinafter to be referred as 'the Act') alleging non-payment of arrears of rent. The demised premises in the present case i.e. 2nd Floor of SCO No.85, Phase-5, SAS Nagar (Mohali).

(3.) Upon notice, petitioner-tenant appeared before the Rent Controller on 23/10/2023 and moved an application dtd. 17/11/2023 for the purposes of seeking leave to contest. The aforesaid application filed at the instance of petitioner-tenant was declined by the Rent Controller vide its order dtd. 12/12/2023 while recording that since the application in the form of affidavit was filed on behalf of petitioner-tenant beyond 15 days of his appearance, the same was barred by limitation and, thus, liable to be rejected. The operative part of the order dtd. 12/12/2023 is extractedhereunder:- "Heard on application dtd. 17/11/2023 to allow the respondent to file affidavit for filing leave to defend. It is stated in the application thatrespondent has received the summons in the present case on 20/10/2023. However, he could not contact his counsel as he was not feeling well.However, he could not contact his counsel as he was not feeling well. Therefore, he filed the present application to allow him to file leave to appeal. Since, period of 15 days for filing the leave to defend from the date of notice has already been expired and this Court has no power to condone the delay. This view is further fortified by the judgment of Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High Court in Paramvir Kaur Vs Balbir Kaur (supra) wherein it was observed that application for condonation of delay would not be applicable to proceedings under Punjab Rent Act, 1995 and Rent Controller have no power to condone the delay. Therefore, the present application is dismissed. Now to come up on 13/12/2023 for arguments on application dtd. 17/11/2023 for filing necessary order."