SEZ tenancy disputes may fall outside rent control where the special statutory framework provides the governing dispute-resolution route.

A tenancy incidental to a Special Economic Zone developer-entrepreneur relationship is governed by the SEZ statutory framework where that scheme provides a separate dispute-resolution mechanism. In that setting, the rent control forum does not survive to the extent it conflicts with the special statute, and a rent control petition is not maintainable. The Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act was treated as inapplicable on these facts because the SEZ regime operated in a different field and prevailed for the dispute. The Public Premises Act was also found inapplicable, as the premises did not satisfy the statutory character of public premises on the record before the Court.

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Issues: (i) Whether the dispute arising from the sub-lease arrangement within the Special Economic Zone was non-arbitrable and outside the scope of arbitration; (ii) Whether the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, by virtue of its overriding provisions, excluded the operation of the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1965; (iii) Whether the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 provided the applicable eviction framework.

Issue (i): Whether the dispute arising from the sub-lease arrangement within the Special Economic Zone was non-arbitrable and outside the scope of arbitration.

Analysis: The dispute was not treated as a pure landlord-tenant dispute divorced from the statutory SEZ framework. The tenancy was held to be incidental to the petitioner's status as an entrepreneur under the SEZ regime, and the rent dispute was linked to the larger statutory relationship between developer and entrepreneur. In that setting, the statutory arbitration mechanism under the SEZ Act governed the dispute and the rent control forum was not the proper forum for its adjudication.

Conclusion: The dispute was held to be arbitrable under the SEZ framework and not exclusively triable under rent control law.

Issue (ii): Whether the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, by virtue of its overriding provisions, excluded the operation of the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1965.

Analysis: The SEZ Act and the KBLR Act were found to operate in different fields. The SEZ enactment was treated as governing the developer-entrepreneur relationship within the zone, while the rent control statute governed landlord-tenant rights in ordinary cases. Since the tenancy in question was incidental to the SEZ relationship and the SEZ framework did not contain a rent-control style eviction scheme, the Court held that the SEZ Act prevailed in the facts of the case and the rent control remedy was unavailable.

Conclusion: The KBLR Act was held not to govern the dispute, and the rent control petition was not maintainable.

Issue (iii): Whether the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 provided the applicable eviction framework.

Analysis: The premises were held not to answer the statutory description of public premises on the facts placed before the Court. The record showed a private SEZ structure with the Government holding only a minority share, and the occupation had not yet become unauthorised in the manner required by the Public Premises Act. The Court therefore rejected the contention that eviction had to proceed under that enactment at the present stage.

Conclusion: The Public Premises Act was held inapplicable on the facts as pleaded and proved.

Final Conclusion: The rent control order was set aside and the eviction petition was held not maintainable in the form in which it was brought, leaving the parties to the statutory route applicable to the SEZ framework.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tenancy is merely incidental to a statutory developer-entrepreneur relationship within a Special Economic Zone, and the governing statute prescribes a separate dispute-resolution structure, the rent control jurisdiction does not survive to the extent inconsistent with that special statutory scheme.

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