INDRA VATI Vs. DEVKI DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ONE G.L. Gulati was tenant of residential accommodation forming part of building as 'Fir Wood' Kaithu in Shimla. B.D. Sharma was its owner-landlord. On December 5, 1972, a petition was made by B.D. Sharma under Section 14 of the Himachal Pradesh Urban Rent Control Act, 1971. It was registered as case No. 196/2 of 1976. The landlord sought ejectment of tenant Gulati on various grounds. Subsequently, the petition was amended and the ground that the premises were required bonafide by the landlord for his use and occupation was also taken. The amended petition was dated August 18, 1976. That is how the case came to be registered in the year 1976 as case No. 196/2. The tenant resisted the petition. Parties led evidence. Ultimately by an order made on September 6, 1979 Rent Controller (II), Shimla, allowed the petition. It was held that tenant Gulati was liable to be evicted on the ground of non-payment of arrears of rent amounting in all to Rs. 783.89 paisa and also on the ground that the premises were required by the landlord bonafide for his personal needs.

(2.) AGGRIEVED by the order aforesaid, tenant Gulati filed an appeal under Section 21(1)(b) of the 1971 Act, which was then in force. The appeal was registered as Civil Misc. Appeal No. 126-S/14 of 1979. It came to be decided by the Appellate Authority on June 28, 1980. The appeal was dismissed. The finding that the landlord needed the premises bonafide for his own requirement was upheld. R.L. Gulati the tenant died on July 11, 1980. His widow Smt. Indra Vati and one of his sons, Rakesh Kumar, filed the present revision in this Court on July 28, 1980. In this revision apart from impleading D.B. Sharma, the landlord, as respondent No. 1, the other sons and daughters of the tenant were impleaded as respondents 2 to 6. Smt. Indra Vati died on January 28, 1984. Landlord B.D. Sharma died on December 19, 1986. His widow and sons and daughter, who were his heirs, were brought on the record as respondents 1(i) to 1(v) under the orders of this Court dated July 23, 1987, passed on Misc. Application No. 27 of 1987 moved on behalf of the petitioners. Ashok Kumar, the third respondent and one of the sons the tenant, also died on May 13, 1987. On an application No. 169 of 1987 made in that behalf, and in terms of the orders of this Court dated September 23, 1987 thereon, his widow and a daughter were brought on the record as respondent 3(i) and 3(ii). C.M.P. No. 2916 of 1986 was filed on behalf of the applicants on September 18, 1986 with the prayer to being certain subsequent event, that took place after the filling of the revision on the record to be taken into consideration by this Court. Likewise, CMP No. 12 of 1987 was also made on behalf of the applicants-tenants on January 13, 1987, to take into account the fact that landlord B.D. Sharma having died, the personal need set up by him for getting the premises in dispute vacated could no longer survive for upholding the order of ejectment of the tenants from the premises. An application (CMP No. 119 of 1988) was also moved on July 13, 1988 on behalf of the landlords saying that original tenant Gulati having died on July 11, 1980, and his spouse also having died on January 28, 1984, the present revision could not survive for decision at the instance of Rakesh Kumar, a son of tenant G.L. Gulati, because neither he nor the other sons and daughters of tenant G.L. Gulati who had been brought on record or the heirs of one of the deceased sons of G.L. Gulati namely Ashok Kumar, were tenants within the meaning of that term in the definition clause of the Himachal Pradesh Urban Rent Control Act, 1987 (hereafter, "the 1987 Act"), which now governs the case. The revision should therefore, be dismissed on this ground alone.

(3.) THE acquisition which was debated before the Court by the learned counsel for the parties was whether the present revision survived for decision at the instance of one of the sons of the tenant late G.L. Gulati or not. In other words, could he be treated to be included in the definition of tenant contained in Section 2(j) of the 1987 Act. In this provision a tenant is defined thus :