1980 (8) TMI 207
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....ary 9, 1959 and on July 24, 1969 the new landlord gave a notice under s. 106 of the Transfer of Property Act to the appellant determining the tenancy. This notice, however, was subsequently withdrawn and after some correspondence with the appellant the rent was increased by the LIC from ₹ 55 to ₹ 125 per month. Sometime towards the end of July 1966, the LIC gave a fresh notice under s. 106 of the Transfer of Property Act purporting to determine the tenancy. Thereafter, there were some parleys between the LIC and the appellant and ultimately the LIC agreed to accept the enhanced rent of ₹ 300 per month from the appellant with effect from December 1, 1976. On April 23, 1977 the LIC gave another notice under s. 106 superseding the previous notice and directing the appellant to vacate the premises on or before May 31, 1977. As the appellant did not vacate the premises, the LIC filed a complaint with respondent No. 2, the Estate Officer, LIC under the provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Premises Act'). Thereafter, the second respondent issued a notice to the appellant under s. 4(1) of....
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....ssession of public premises, for, at the time when they were in occupation of the property, the property was not public premises. Then it was either the joint family property or the property of the Maharaja, namely, Yadavindra Singh. The property was not public premises before it was sold to the Government." If these observations of this Court are torn from the context they may presumably support the argument of the appellant but we have to read these observations in the light of the specific provisions of the Punjab, Public Premises and Land (Eviction and Rent Recovery) Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Punjab Act'). Relevant portion of s. 3 of that Act may be extracted thus: "For purposes of this Act, a person shall be deemed to be in unauthorised occupation of any public premises:- (a) where he has whether before or after the commencement of this Act, entered into possession thereof otherwise than under and in pursuance of any allotment, lease or grant." [Emphasis Ours] It would be seen that before a person could be said to be in an unauthorised occupation, the Act required the following conditions:- (1) that the occupant had entered into poss....
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....on' as contemplated by s. 2(2)(g). There is yet another aspect of the matter which distinguishes the present case from the language employed in the Punjab Act. Section 2(2)(g) is an inclusive definition and consists of two separate limbs-(1) where a person is in occupation in relation to any public premises without authority for such occupation, and (2) even if the possession or occupation of the tenant continues after the lease is determined. In the instant case, the lease was doubtless determined by the landlord by a notice under s. 106 of the Transfer of Property Act whose validity for purposes of deciding the question of law has not been questioned by the learned counsel for the appellant. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the appellant was in unauthorised occupation of the premises once the lease was determined. The second limb mentioned in s. 2(2)(g) is conspicuously absent from the provisions of the Punjab Act. For these reasons, we overrule the first contention raised by the counsel for the appellant and we hold, agreeing with the High Court, that the appellant was undoubtedly in unauthorised occupation of the premises. The second contention put forward by Mr. Rao ....
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....following observations:- "It is therefore, desirable to determine the overriding effect of one or the other of the relevant provisions in these two Acts, in a given case, on much broader considerations of the purpose and policy underlying the two Acts and the clear intendment conveyed by the language of the relevant provisions therein." In the light of the principles laid down in the aforesaid cases we would test the position in the present case. So far as the Premises Act is concerned it operates in a very limited field in that it applies only to a limited nature of premises belonging only to particular sets of individuals, a particular set of juristic persons like companies, corporations or the Central Government. Thus, the Premises Act has a very limited application. Secondly, the object of the Premises Act is to provide for eviction of unauthorised occupants from public premises by a summary procedure so that the premises may be available to the authorities mentioned in the Premises Act which constitute a class by themselves. That the authorities to which the Premises Act applies are a class by themselves is not disputed by the counsel for the appellant as even in t....
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....e second preliminary objection taken by the appellant. Lastly, it was argued that apart from the Rent Act, s. 19 of the Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Slums Act'), which also would have to be construed as a Special Act applying only to such places which are declared to be slums under the Act, would override the provisions of both the Rent Act and the Premises Act. This argument appears to us to be without substance. The Slums Act was passed as far back as 1956 and the Premises Act was subsequent to the Slums Act and would, therefore, prevail over the Slums Act. Relevant portion of s. 19 of the Slums Act may be extracted thus: "19. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, no person shall, except with the previous permission in writing of the competent authority,- (a) institute, after the commencement of the Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Amendment Act, 1964 any suit or proceeding for obtaining any decree or order for the eviction of a tenant from any building or land in a slum area;" A perusal of s. 19 of the Slums Act clearly shows that it is in direct confli....