PROBHAT KUMAR DAS Vs. SANTHAL PABARHIA SEWA MANDAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application arises out of an order passed on the 19th of February 1977, by which the Court below has directed under section 11-A of the Bihar Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act), the defendant-petitioner to deposit arrears of rent and current rent, month by month, which is under challenge.

(2.) The facts and circumstances in which this application has arisen are as follows. The opposite party filed a suit for eviction of the petitioner on the ground of default of payment of rent and for arrears of rent from November 1969 to July 1972 at the rate of Rs. 75 per month. In course of the suit the opposite party filed an application under section 11-A of the Act, to which a rejoinder was filed by the petitioner. Without stating the details of an earlier decision on the point, an appeal, an application for revision against that, and an order of remand ultimately the learned Subordinate Judge decided the matter on the point, on the 19th of February 1977 and granted the plaintiff's application.

(3.) It has been urged on behalf of the petitioner that the Court could not have ordered payment of rent at the rate of Rs. 75, the rate at which rent was last paid, in view of the fact that section 4 of the Act prohibits any enhanced rent to be realised by the land from the tenant and the contract to that effect is unlawful and void, and the court cannot give effect to it. Secondly, it has been urged that the order under section 11-A was passed on a date, viz., 19th of February, 1977, when the Act had expired. Thirdly, it has been urged that the order is bad in law, because it has ordered deposit of the arrears of rent by the 2nd of March 1977, which would mean within a period of eleven days, whereas section 11-A prescribes a period of fifteen days for that purpose.