Rent-control proviso requires provisional assessment of arrears before eviction, with a chance to cure any deficiency.

Rent under the lease was treated as Rs. 2,000 per month, supported by the lease deed and the tenants' own correspondence. The proviso to Section 13(2)(i) of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act was construed to require the Rent Controller to first make a provisional judicial assessment of arrears, interest and costs, and where the rent rate is disputed, determine that rate as part of the assessment. A tenant who complies with the assessment avoids immediate eviction; if a deficit remains after final adjudication, a reasonable opportunity to cure it should be given before eviction follows. The matter was remitted because no provisional assessment had been made.

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Issues: (i) whether the agreed rate of rent was Rs. 2000 per month or Rs. 1800 per month; (ii) whether the proviso to Section 13(2)(i) of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 required the Rent Controller to first assess the arrears of rent, interest and costs where the quantum or rate of rent was disputed; and (iii) what procedure and consequence followed if the tenant complied with, or fell short of, the amount so assessed.

Issue (i): whether the agreed rate of rent was Rs. 2000 per month or Rs. 1800 per month.

Analysis: The written lease deed recited rent at Rs. 2000 per month. That recital was supported by the tenants' own correspondence enclosing cheques calculated on that basis. The contrary inference drawn from a different proceeding, where the landlord had not objected to an assertion of Rs. 1800 per month, was treated as a weak circumstance because the rent payable was not then a live issue and a mere failure to object could not outweigh direct admissions by the tenants.

Conclusion: The rate of rent was Rs. 2000 per month, excluding water and electricity charges, and the contrary finding was unsustainable.

Issue (ii): whether the proviso to Section 13(2)(i) of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 required the Rent Controller to first assess the arrears of rent, interest and costs where the quantum or rate of rent was disputed.

Analysis: The proviso was held to be ambiguous if read as placing the entire burden only on the tenant without any prior judicial assessment. The Court construed the words "assessed by the Controller" as governing the whole preceding amount, not merely costs. This construction was adopted to make the provision workable, to prevent hardship and anomaly, and to align the rent-control scheme with its tenant-protective object and with analogous rent-control provisions.

Conclusion: The Controller must first make a provisional assessment of arrears, interest and costs, and where necessary also determine the disputed rent rate, before the tenant is required to pay or tender under the proviso.

Issue (iii): what procedure and consequence followed if the tenant complied with, or fell short of, the amount so assessed.

Analysis: Once the provisional assessment is made, compliance on the first date of hearing permits the enquiry to proceed on the merits. If final adjudication shows the deposit to be excessive, refund may be ordered. If it is deficient, eviction need not follow forthwith; the tenant may be given a reasonable time to make good the deficit. Failure to comply after such opportunity results in eviction. The matter was remitted because no such provisional order had been passed by the Controller.

Conclusion: Compliance with the provisional assessment prevents immediate eviction, while deficiency after final adjudication can be cured by a conditional opportunity to deposit the balance; the present eviction order was therefore set aside and the matter remitted.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded, the eviction orders were annulled, and the matter was sent back for fresh consideration in accordance with the newly declared procedural interpretation of the proviso.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a rent-control proviso requires payment or tender of arrears "assessed by the Controller," the Controller must first make a provisional judicial assessment of the disputed arrears, interest and costs, and the tenant's liability to eviction arises only upon failure to comply with that assessment after being given the statutory opportunity.

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