MOHAMMAD ISMAIL SOFI Vs. COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first floor of two storied building situated at Pazalpora, Shalimar, Srinagar owned and possessed by the petitioner was taken on rent by the Animal Husbandry Department of the Government of Jammu& Kashmir. The possession was taken over on 01.01.2012, however, no rent deed/ lease deed was executed by the parties and it was mutually agreed that the rent of the building aforesaid shall be assessed by the Rent Assessment Committee, which shall be agreeable to both the parties. In this regard, the petitioner also executed an affidavit on 11.06.2012 whereby he agreed to accept the rent whatever was ultimately fixed by the Rent Assessment Committee.

(2.) The short grievance projected by the petitioner in the writ petition is that despite the fact that the aforesaid accommodation was taken possession of by the respondent-department as far as on 01.01.2012 but the rent was not assessed with reasonable dispatch. It was only on 27.08.2015, in the second meeting of the District Rent Assessment Committee, the rent of the building in question was assessed to be at the rate of Rs. 5850/- per month. The petitioner submits that even after the rent was properly assessed by the District Rent Assessment Committee, the arrears of rent were not disbursed despite petitioner's making several representations to the respondents from time to time.

(3.) Feeling aggrieved of the inaction on the part of the respondents, the petitioner filed the instant writ petition seeking, inter alia, a direction to the respondents to fix rent of the building afresh taking into consideration the market rate of the commercial potentialities of the property occupied by the respondents. He also called in question the minutes of the second District Rent Assessment Committee meeting wherein the monthly rent viz-a-viz property of the petitioner along with other properties came to be fixed. It appears that during the pendency of this petition, the petitioner restricted his claim to the payment of arrears of rent, which were payable to the petitioner in terms of the decision of the Rent Assessment Committee taken on 27.08.2015. This is apparent from the interim orders passed by this Court from time to time.