TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2001 (2) TMI 1026
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....elief for his urgent need. But the snail paced litigation creeping through all the tiers of the judicial hierarchical forums would have frustrated all his expectations, though others could admire the tenacity with which he persisted with the cause. Twenty three years ago, the litigant in this case wanted accommodation for his son, who then became a medical graduate, to start a clinic so that from the stage of a fledgling in the profession of medicine he could fly higher up. His father who owns the building moved for eviction of the tenant from the building for the said purpose. Although he won the battle at all tiers the urgently needed eviction is till now eluding him as a mirage. Appellant is the tenant of a shop building situate at Khalsa Gali, Agra. In 1978, the respondent-landlord filed an application under Section 21(1)(a) of the U.P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 (for short the U.P. Act) on a twin need. One is that his son who passed his medical examination wanted to carry on medical practice and this building was needed for housing his clinic. The other is, the landlord himself had just retired from Railway service and he too did not ....
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....ometers from Agra, whereat the building is situate, and that he is now getting a pay of ₹ 15,000/- per month. The point sought to be urged is that, subsequent developments may also be taken into account in eviction proceedings, particularly when the eviction is sought by a landlord on the ground that he bona fide needs the building for his own use or for the use of any member of his family. Section 21(1) of the U.P. Act deals with proceedings for release of building under occupation of tenant. Clause (a) of the sub-section alone is germane in the present proceedings. The said clause is, therefore, extracted below: The prescribed authority may, on an application of the landlord in that behalf, order the eviction of a tenant from the building under tenancy or any specified part thereof if it is satisfied that any of the following grounds exists namely- (a) required either in its existing form or after demolition and new construction by the landlord for occupation by himself or any member of his family, or any person for whose benefit it is held by him, either for residential purposes or that the building is bona fide for purposes of any profession, trade or calling, or whe....
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....n consideration of subsequent events provided such events had an impact on those rights and obligations. What the learned Chief Justice observed therein is this: The normal rule is that in any litigation the rights and obligations of the parties are adjudicated upon as they obtain at the commencement of the lis. But this is subject to an exception. Wherever subsequent events of fact or law which have a material bearing on the entitlement of the parties to relief or on aspects which bear on the moulding of the relief occur, the court is not precluded from taking a cautious cognizance of the subsequent changes of fact and law to mould the relief. This Court reiterated the same principle in Kamleshwar Prasad vs. Pradumanju Agarwal [1997 (4) SCC 413] that the crucial date normally is the date of filing the petition. In that case, a two-Judge Bench (K. Ramaswamy and G.B. Pattanaik, JJ) has held that even the subsequent event of death of the landlord who wanted to start a business in the tenanted premises is not sufficient to dislodge the bona fide need established by him earlier. This is what Pattanaik J. has observed for the Bench: That apart, the fact that the landlord needed the p....
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.... is passed against the tenant he cannot invite the court to take into consideration subsequent events. (Emphasis supplied) The judicial tardiness, for which unfortunately our system has acquired notoriety, causes the lis to creep through the line for long long years from the start to the ultimate termini, is a malady afflicting the system. During this long interval many many events are bound to take place which might happen in relation to the parties as well as the subject matter of the lis. If the cause of action is to be submerged in such subsequent events on account of the malady of the system it shatters the confidence of the litigant, despite the impairment already caused. Of course a two-Judge Bench (K. Ramaswamy and D.P. Wadhwa, JJ) pointed out in another case Ansuyaben Kantilal Bhatt vs. Rashiklal Manilal Shah [1997 5 SCC 457] that the pendency of a lis for a record period of thirty one years has transformed a middle aged landlord to advanced stage of gerenry and at that stage he could not start a new business venture. After lamenting over the system which caused a whopping delay of thirty-one years the Bench made two directions. The first was that the son of the landlor....