Waiver and rent control jurisdiction: Supreme Court held civil court eviction was maintainable where the Act did not apply.

The Andhra Pradesh Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction Control) Act, 1960 did not apply to a building constructed in 1958, so the Rent Controller lacked jurisdiction and the landlord could pursue eviction in Civil Court. The Supreme Court held that waiver requires a voluntary and intentional relinquishment of a known right, and it could not be inferred where the landlord acted under a mistake of fact about the Act's applicability. It also ruled that estoppel or res judicata cannot confer jurisdiction where the rent control law does not apply. The High Court judgment was set aside, the landlord's decree was restored, and the tenant was given time to vacate.

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Issues: Whether the appellant was barred by waiver, estoppel, or res judicata from maintaining the civil suit for eviction when the building was outside the Rent Control Act and the Rent Controller lacked jurisdiction.

Analysis: The building was found to have been constructed in 1958 and therefore fell outside the statutory rent control protection. On that finding, the Rent Controller had no jurisdiction to entertain the eviction dispute. A decision rendered by a forum lacking jurisdiction cannot operate as res judicata, and a party cannot, by waiver or estoppel, confer jurisdiction on a court or authority which the statute denies. The appellant's earlier resort to the Rent Controller was based on a mistaken assumption about the building's status under the Act, and such a mistake could not amount to an intentional relinquishment of a known right. The doctrines of waiver and estoppel were therefore inapplicable.

Conclusion: The appellant was not barred from suing in the civil court, and the objection based on waiver, estoppel, or res judicata failed.

Final Conclusion: The civil court's jurisdiction over the dispute was upheld, and the decree in favour of the appellant stood restored.

Ratio Decidendi: A party cannot be precluded by waiver, estoppel, or res judicata from invoking the correct forum where the earlier forum lacked statutory jurisdiction, because jurisdiction cannot be created by consent or conduct.

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