MAHAVIR JAIN SHOE STORE Vs. GIAN CHAND LOOMBA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a tenant's revision and has been directed against the judgment dated 17.3.1983 passed by the court of the appellate authority, Ludhiana, under the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 (hereinafter called 'the Act'), who set aside the order dated 30.11.1979 passed by the Rent Controller, Samrala, vide which the petition of the landlord Under Section 13 of the Act was dismissed and the appellate authority allowed the ejectment petition and ordered for the eviction of the tenant.

(2.) The pleadings of the parties are that Dhani Ram, landlord, filed an ejectment petition Under Section 13 of the Act against M/s Mahavir Jain Shoe Store and the case set up by the landlord was that he is the landlord of the demised premises and the respondent took the premises in dispute on rent for a period of 11 months w.e.f. 1.3.1968, at a monthly rent, of Rs. 60/-. The respondent is liable to be ejected as he has neither paid nor tendered the arrears of rent from 1.4.1977 besides the house tax for period 1975-76 at the rate of Rs. 15/- per month; that the premises in dispute are unsafe and unfit for human habitation; that the petitioner wanted to reconstruct the same and that the premises were required for the married son of the petitioner as he wanted to start his medical practice at Khanna.

(3.) Notice was given to the tenant who file reply and denied the allegations. According to the tenant he had already tendered the arrears of rent along with the house tax on the first date of hearing and, in these circumstances, the ground for non-payment of rent does not survive. It was also the stand of the tenant that the premises in question was a shop and that the landlord could not claim the premises for his son. Moreover, the landlord has a spacious house in the local limits of Municipal Committee, Khanna. It was also the stand of the tenant that the building is safe and sound and it has not become unsafe or unfit for human habitation.