CHANDESHWAR PRASAD SINGH Vs. JAGARNATH PRASAD SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the defendant, and arises out of a suit for the recovery of rent at Rs. 30 per annum, which is the rate at which the land was settled with the defendant in 1916. The defence pleaded that the rent had been reduced by the Rent Reduction Officer under Section 112A, Tenancy Act, to Rs. 21-13-0. The plaintiff challenged the validity of this order on the ground of want of jurisdiction in the Bent Reduction Officer to make it. The first Court decreed the suit at the reduced rate, but in appeal the appellate Court has decreed it at the rate claimed.

(2.) The facts relating to the jurisdiction of the Rent Reduction Officer are these: The tenant made an application for reduction of rent under Clause (a) of Section 112A, that is to say, for cancellation of an enhancement made under Section 29 or certain of the clauses of Section 30 of the Act. The ground on which the Rent Reduction Officer reduced the rent was not under Clause (a), but under Clause (d), that is to say, on the ground that there has been & fall, not due to a temporary cause, in the average local price of staple food crops. The plaintiff's case is that the tenant having applied under Clause (a) the Rent Reduction Officer had no jurisdiction to reduce the rent on a ground not included in Clause (a).

(3.) In my opinion, there is no substance in the contention at all, The Rent Reduction Officer, had jurisdiction to reduce the rent of occupancy raiyats who applied to him for that purpose; The mere circumstance that the reason that urged him to make the reduction was some; ground other than that asserted by the tenant, does not affect the Rent Reduction Officer's jurisdiction at all. Furthemore, in this particular case there had been a notification by the Governor; under Sub- section (1) of Section 112A on 17 August 1938, prior to the date of the institution of this suit, authorizing Rent Reduction Officers to reduce rents suo motu on any of the grounds mentioned in Section 112A, so that, even if the order of the Rent Reduction Officer be regarded as one refusing to grant the tenant a reduction on the ground prayed for, the Rent Reduction Officer still had power to grant him suo motu relief on any other ground mentioned in that section.