MD. MUSTAFA & ANR. Vs. MD. AZIZ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the parties. The Plaintiffs purchased the suit premises by registered sale deed dated 6.9.2000 from Mohanlal Gupta, wherein defendant was a tenant from before on monthly rental of Rs. 600.00 They filed Eviction Suit No. 51 of 2002 under the Bihar Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1982 (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act) against the tenant alleging that no rent was paid to them and consequently he became defaulter within the meaning of section 11 (1) (d) of the Act, liable for eviction. A petition under section 15 of the Act was filed in the suit by the plaintiff. In its rejoinder the defendant denied any knowledge/information about the transfer of the suit premises in plaintiffs favour and claimed that he was paying rent continuously to Mohanlal Gupta. A postal Money order acknowledgement receipt was produced by him to show that Mohanlal Gupta received rent of the suit premises up to May, 2001 on 18.5.2001.

(2.) In the present case the defendant admitted himself to be a tenant in the suit premises inducted by Mohanlal Gupta, who transferred the same to the plaintiffs.

(3.) It is well settled that attornment is not a necessary condition to create land-lord-tenant relationship between the parties. The transfer takes place with all incidents of right, title and interest of the transferor and the transferee is entitled to sue the existing tenant on the grounds provided under Sec. 11 of the Act, even if the tenant has not attorned to his tenancy under him. Sec. 109 of the Transfer of Property Act provides that if the lessor transfers the property leased, the transferee in absence of a contract to the contrary, shall possess all the rights. After transfer of the lessors right in favour of the transferee he gets all the rights and liabilities of the lessor in respect of the subsisting tenancy. This provision never insisted that transfer will take effect only when the tenant attorns. Hence, a fresh attornment by the lessee to the landlords assignee is not necessary to complete the title of the assignee. After the assignment, assigner goes out and is divested of his title and ceases to be the landlord. The transferee steps into the shoes and possesses all the rights which the transferor had. The attornment by the tenant is not essential condition for filing a suit for eviction by the transferee landlord. Attornment is an act of the tenant putting one person in the place of another as his land lord.