HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. RAJIV DUTTA, SANJEEV DUTTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Keeping in view the importance of the issue involved in these cases at the time of admission of these petitions, the same were referred for decision to a Division Bench.

(2.) The following important question arises in these cases:-

(3.) The brief facts relevant for decision are that one Smt. Kailash Dutta (since deceased) and now represented by her legal heirs S/Sh. Rajiv Dutta and Sanjeev Dutta filed three separate eviction petitions against her tenants in respect of portion of the building defined as property Nos. 149 and 150, Nomani Building, Lower Bazar, Shimla. These eviction petitions were filed in the year 1984 and in all these petitions eviction orders were passed against the tenants in the year 1989. It would be pertinent to mention that in all these petitions, the tenants had raised an objection that no relationship of landlord and tenant existed between them and Smt. Kailash Dutta, the alleged landlady. The stand of the landlay was that the original owner of the building late Sh. Kamaru Din by written Will had bequeathed his entire property in her favour. The learned Rent Controller held that the petitioner was a landlady and entitled to receive the rent. It would be pertinent to mention that the learned Rent Controller could not have decided the question of title. Even if the title of the petitioner was defective, she could still be treated to be a landlady. Thereafter, three execution petitions 29-10 of 99/95, 30/10 of 99/95 and 31/10 of 99/95 were filed by the landlady Smt. Kailash Dutta for execution of the eviction orders, which remained pending for a long time.