BHANWAR LAL Vs. PURAN CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN these two revision petitions, a common question about the validity of an appeal against the order passed under Section 7 of the Rajasthan Premises (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1950 (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Act') has been raised and as such both these revision petitions are disposed of by a common order. The plaintiff opposite parties are the tenants of the same land-lord, the petitioner in each case, in respect of different shops. IN both these cases, the tenant-opposite party filed suits for fixation of standard rent under Section 6 of the Act, in respect of the shop of which one of them was tenant. It was claimed by the tenant-plaintiff in each suit, that the agreed rent was excessive and as such it was prayed that standard rent may be fixed for the premises in dispute.

(2.) THE tenant-plaintiffs also submitted an application under Section 7 of the Act seeking determination of the provisional rent for the respective shops. THE trial court fixed the agreed rent as the provisional rent. THE tenant-plaintiffs thereupon filed appeals in the court of Additional District Judge, Raisinghnagar. During the pendency of those appeals, the defendant-landlord filed affidavits disclosing the agreed rent of the premises before April 1, 1979, when the rent of each one of the premises was enhanced and the rent which is in dispute in the two suits was fixed. THE Additional District Judge relied upon the affidavit filed by the defendant-landlord and reduced the provisional rent to the amount which was paid as rent for the premises in question prior to April 1, 1979, when the rent of the shops was enhanced to the disputed amount. In these revision petitions, learned counsel for the landlord petitioner urges that the appeals filed before the Additional District Judge were not maintainable against the order passed by learned Munsif, fixing the provisional rent of the disputed premises. Learned counsel laid emphasis on the provisions contained in sub-sec. (l) of sec. 7 of the Act, which are to the effect that the provisional rent fixed for the premises in question shall be binding on the parties. Learned counsel urges that provisional rent could not be altered by the trial court until a decree was passed in the suit determining standard rent for the premises in dispute and that no appeal was maintainable against the order fixing provisional rent.