RAJ KAPOOR Vs. MOHINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN a rent control petition for eviction, the landlord applied under Section 151 CPC for permission to raise construction as per the sanctioned plan over the tenanted premises at the second floor. Such a permission was granted by the Rent Controller and the tenant is the revision petition before this Court assailing the said order.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner submits that the Rent Controller does not have jurisdiction to grant any such permission under Section 151 and the order was incompetent. The East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 itself does not contain any provision empowering the Rent Controller to authorize any form of construction either by a landlord or a tenant. The only occasion when Rent Controller could authorize any alteration in a building is under Section 12 where by the failure of landlord to make necessary repairs, it should be competent for a Controller to direct on an application by a tenant, after such inquiry as a Controller might think necessary that such repairs could be made by the tenant. The scheme of the section could be understood as a direction only in relation to the tenanted premises itself and not any direction other than the property which is held by a tenant under his landlord.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the respondent-landlord contends that the petition is of the year 2007 and there is enough bad blood between parties that the petition should be disposed of early. Having regard to the peculiar circumstances, I deem it appropriate to request the Rent Controller to dispose of the rent petition as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of six months from the date of this order. Order accordingly.