NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE Vs. H S RIKHY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order will dispose of the four revision petitions listed above. The petitions have arisen out of a single order passed by Mr. Basant Lal Aggarwal, Subordinate Judge, Delhi, by which he dealt with a preliminary law point raised in a number of applications filed under Section 8, Delhi and Ajmer Rent Control Act, 1952.

(2.) The facts briefly are that the New Delhi Municipal Committee built what is known as Central Municipal Market Lodi Colony. This Colony consists of 32 shops with residential flats on 28 of the shops. In April 1945 the Municipal Committee in pursuance of a resolution passed by it invited tenders from the public for thesa shops. On receipts of tenders the highest bidders were allotted various shops at rents varying from Rs. 135/8/- to Rs. 520/- per mensem. Towards the end of 1952 thhty of the occ pants filed applications under Section 8 of the Rent Control Act of 1952 praying for the fixation of the standard rent in respect of the premises respectively occupied by them. The New Delhi Municipal Committee took a preliminary objection that the applications were not competent because no relationship of landlord and tenant existed between the parties and the various applicants were not tenants within the meaning of the Act. Upon this the trial Court framed the following preliminary issue:

(3.) The learned Subordinate Judge found that the applications were competent because various applicants were tenants within the meaning of the Act. The New Delhi Municipal Committee moved this Court on the revision side and when the matter came up in the first instance before my Lord the Chief Justice sitting singly he referred it to a Division Bench owing to the importance of the question involved. We have heard the learned counsel for both sides at considerable length and have also considered the various rulings cited before us.