SHIVJEE MAHARAJ Vs. VIJAY KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS civil second appeal has been referred to this bench by one of us as it raises important questions relating to the scope and applicability of the Houses and Shops Rent Control, Act, 1966, hereinafter referred to as the Act.

(2.) IT appears that by a deed dated April 4, 1967, which was made effective from March 1, 1967, the respondent was allowed to excavate earth from two parcels of land situate in villages Rajpura and Naubad to prepare bricks therefrom for a period of one year in lieu of Rs. 800/ -. The respondent having failed to restore possession of the said parcels of land to the appellant after the expiry of the aforesaid period, the latter brought a suit for ejectment of the respondent. The suit of the appellant was dismissed by the trial court holding that the deed was nothing but a lease deed and the suit being governed by the provisions of the Act, no ground for ejectment of the respondent as contemplated by Section 11 of the Act had either been alleged or proved. On appeal the learned District Judge, Jammu upheld the judgment and decree of the trial court observing that the deed amounted to a lease and not a licence, that the suit land being a shop within the meaning of the Act and the respondent having been given possession thereof for a commercial purpose the provisions of the Act were applicable to the case and that the respondent was not liable to be ejected.

(3.) APPEARING for the appellant Mr. Thakur has submitted before us as he submitted before one of us that the right granted to the respondent to excavate earth from the suit land was not in the nature of a lease and that the land was not a shop within the meaning of the Act so as to attract the provisions thereof.