DEV DAS Vs. DR. RAVINDRA SINGH SODA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Prayer of the tenant appellant to condone delay in deposition rent was declined and his defence against eviction was struck out. It is against this order that the tenant appellant has preferred the instant miscellaneous appeal.

(2.) A few facts leading to this appeal may be stated at the outset. The plaintiff respondent (for short the land lord) instituted a civil suit against the defendant appellant (for short the tenant) for eviction under section 13(1) (a) of the Rajasthan Premises Control of Rent and Eviction Act, 1950 (for short the Rent Act) on the ground that the tenant neither tendered nor paid the rent of the shop for past more than three years and committed default in making payment of rent. The tenant filed written statement stating therein that he never committed default. the rent was regularly paid but the landlord never gave receipt of the same. The court below under section 13(3) of the Rent Act determined the provisional rent on Oct. 30, 1999 and directed the tenant to deposit the arrears of rent for the period from June 1, 1995 to Sept. 30, 1999 within two months and further to regularly deposit the monthly rent in the bank account of the land lord.

(3.) An application thereafter under section 13(5) of the Rent Act was filed by the land lord on March 18, 2000 for striking out the defence against the eviction of the tenant on the ground that the tenant had failed to deposit the rent from Oct. 1999 to Feb. 2000. The tenant in the reply averred that arrears of rent amounting to Rs. 79,326/- was deposited by him on Feb. 7, 2000 i.e. after two months and extended period of 45 days. In the meantime whenever the tenant went to the court, he made enquiries from his counsel and other persons and was informed that default is constituted in non-payment of rent for six months. It was under this bonafide though erroneous impression that he did not make payment of the rent from Oct. 1999 to Feb. 2000. This mistake was noticed when he contacted his counsel for filing written statement and came to know that the rent was required to be deposited on month to month basis. Till then he was under the impression that rent could be deposited any time within six months.,On April 13, 2000 he immediately deposited Rs. 13800.00. This non-payment of rent from Oct. 1999 to Feb. 2000 within the time prescribed was a bonafide lapse on his part. An application seeking condonation of delay in depositing the rent supported by the affidavit was also filed by the tenant. Landlord submitted reply to the application stating therein that in the order determining provisional rent, Bank account number of the landlord was specified. Further in the order the tenant was also directed to deposit monthly rent regularly. In view of this the reasons assigned by the tenant in the application could not be termed as bonafide. Learned court below vide order dated Nov. 4, 2000 refused to condone the delay in depositing rent and struck out his defence against eviction.