Special eviction remedy for defence personnel applies by plain language and cannot be narrowed by an original tenancy requirement.

Section 13A-1 of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 provides a special and liberal eviction remedy for a member of the armed forces or a retired member on production of the prescribed certificate. The provision requires proof of bona fide need, but it does not import the comparative hardship inquiry under Section 13(2). Its plain language does not justify adding a further condition that the landlord must have originally inducted the tenant into possession while in service. The statutory object is to assist defence personnel in recovering premises bona fide required by them, and the provision is not to be narrowly confined by reading in restrictions not found in the text.

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Issues: Whether Section 13A-1 of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 can be invoked by a landlord who became owner of the premises after the tenant had already entered into occupation, and whether the provision is confined only to cases where the landlord himself had originally let out the premises while in service.

Analysis: Section 13A-1 created a special and liberal remedy for a member of the armed forces or a retired member, on production of the prescribed certificate, and dispensed with the tenant's protection of comparative hardship available under Section 13(2). The provision required proof of bona fide requirement, but not proof of greater hardship. The Court held that the language of Section 13A-1 was plain and did not support a further restriction that the landlord must have himself originally inducted the tenant into possession. The object of the amendment and the statement of objects and reasons showed an intention to assist defence personnel in recovering premises bona fide required by them, not to confine relief only to those who had themselves created the tenancy. A construction limiting the provision in the manner suggested would amount to rewriting the statute.

Conclusion: Section 13A-1 is available even where the tenancy had commenced before the landlord became owner, and not merely where the landlord had originally let out the premises while in service.

Final Conclusion: The special eviction remedy for defence personnel was held to apply on the facts, the High Court's view was reversed, and the eviction decrees of the subordinate authorities were restored.

Ratio Decidendi: A statute conferring a special eviction remedy on defence personnel must be applied according to its plain language, and the benefit cannot be restricted by importing a condition that the landlord must have originally created the tenancy unless the statute itself so provides.

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