TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1986 (11) TMI 382
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....hat she required the premises for her residence and. for the residence of the members of her family and further she was not in possession of any other suitable residential accommodation. She was at the time of filing of the petition, living, according to her, as a guest of her niece in her house in D-36, Nizammuddin East, New Delhi. She had asserted that she could not continue residing there permanently or indefinitely and that the accommodation with her niece was limited being only two bed rooms with a common bath room and that her niece wanted her own mother to stay with her and would like the landlady to shift as soon as respondent could. It was further averred that the niece of the respondent landlady was a working woman and for meeting her clients she needed accommodation as she was at all relevant time working as an executive in an advertising agency. It was also stated that the landlady was a social worker and had her own sphere of activities. There were two flats in the building in question. The landlady, according to her, needed one floor to let out one of the floors of that building to have income to support herself which, according to her, was her only source of liveliho....
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.... 1977 when the ground floor of the premises had been let out to the New Zealand Embassy. New Zealand Embassy vacated the premises in July, 1977 and the same was relet by the landlady, the respondent herein to one Shri G.N. Dalmia on 27th July, 1977 at a higher rent- Shri Dalmia in his turn had again vacated the premises in July, 1979 and the prem- ises was let out again by the landlady at a still higher rent M/s Indian Express Newspaper Private Limited. It was stated that M/s Indian Express Newspapers Private Limited had vacated and thereafter the 'same was let out to one Shri Pradeep Kumar Ganeriwal at a still higher rent in April, 1985. There were allegations made saying that initially it was occupied by one Shri Mulgaokar and then Shri Nihal Singh and then Shri Ganeriwal. These were controverted by an affidavit filed by the respondent landlady on 30th October, 1986. According to her, Indian Express was the lessee but the others were the officers or the executives of the Indian Express and as such were allowed to occupy the premises in question. But to revert back to the events leading to the present appeal, it must be noted that the earlier petition for eviction was dated 1....
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.... Child Welfare, Ladies Hostel at 4, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi and the requirement for her flat there upto her assignment with Indian Council for Child Welfare which ended in May, 1970 and in May, 1970, the respondent-landlady went to Aligarh and stayed there till March, 1971 as she had no place to live in Delhi. From March, 1971 to July, 1974, she had lived at Pandata Road as a guest of one Mrs. Gufran and her niece Miss Shahila Haider had also lived there as a guest of Mrs. Gufran. Mrs. Gufran went away to U.S.A. and the premises was surrendered to Directorate. of Estate. On 1st July, 1974, the landlady shifted to Nizammuddin, in New Delhi along with Miss Shahila Haider who took the premises on rent. The landlady-respond- ent was a graduate from the Leads University and her father was a leading lawyer, who was pioneer in women education in India. She founded Women's College in Aligarh University. The husband of the landlady was the Manager of Reserve Bank of India. The landlady was connected with various organisa- tions such as Y.W.C.A., All India Women's Conference, Indian Council for Child Welfare and some such other organisations. One Mrs. Vinita Nagar proved....
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.... in revision before the High Court and the question was examined. It was pleaded before the High Court on behalf of the appellant that the respondent had only one son and that she should ,live with him. So far as the requirement being bona fide was concerned, the learned High Court examined the evidence and found that the appraisal and analysis of the evidence by the trial court were correct. The High Court, therefore, found no reason to differ from the Additional Rent Controller that landlady had no other reasonably suit- able accommodation and the landlady was in need of the accommodation in question bona fide and reasonably. It was further found that there was no mala fide on her part in letting out the premises in question when it fell vacant as mentioned hereinbefore. It was further held that there was no question of financial difficulty being an afterthought as the previous petition was dismissed on the ground that there was no relationship between the landlord and the tenant between the parties in that case Therefore, under section 14(1)(e) of Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (hereinafter called the 'Act'), eviction was upheld. In the premises the revision was dismissed ....
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....pying a non-residen- tial building in the town. 'Building', of course means a portion of a building. As the prerequisite for the entitlement of the peti- tioner to institute and continue a petition has ceased to exist, it must follow that ABA No.5/1967 is no longer maintainable and must be dismissed." This Court upheld that finding. This Court affirmed the proposition that for making the right or remedy claimed by the party just and meaningful as also legal and factual in accord with the current realities, the court could and in many cases must take cautious cognizance of events and developments subsequent to the institution of the proceed- ings, provided rules of fairness to both the sides were scrupulously obeyed. In the instant case there is no ques- tion of violation of any principle of rules of natural justice. If cognizance are taken of events and developments, subsequent to the initiation of proceedings, it must. be held that the landlady had the opportunity of occupying a floor in the house which fell vacant not once but twice subsequent to arising of her need for reasonable accommoda- tion. She chose not to occupy the said premises. The landla- dy asserts tha....
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.... to take the fact into consideration because, it is well-settled that in a proceeding for the ejectment of a tenant on the ground of personal requirement under a statute controlling the eviction of tenants, unless the statute prescribes to the contrary the requirement must continue to exist on the date when the proceeding was finally disposed of either in appeal or revision by the relevant authority. Therefore, subsequent events can be taken cognizance of if they are relevant and material. In the instant case the fact that the other flat in the premises fell vacant which the landlady could have occupied but she did not and let it out to fetch higher income was a relevant factor. It can be taken cognizance of. Variety Emporium v. V.R.M. Mohd. Ibrahim Naina's, [1985] 1 SCC 251 case was with regard to Rent Control and Eviction and dealt with the question of bona fide personal require- ment, wherein in paragraphs 15 and 16, the Court referred to the decision of Hasmat Rai v. Raghunath Prasad, (supra) and observed that the subsequent events could be taken account of and the distinction between 'desire' and 'need' must be kept in view. This view was also applied by t....
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....ive, beneficial for those who want protection from eviction and rack renting but restrictive so far as the landlord's right or claim for eviction is con- cerned. Rent restriction laws would provide a habitat for the landlord or landlady if need be, but not to seek com- forts other than habital--that right the landlord must seek elsewhere. Our attention was drawn to the decision in the case of Bishambhar Dayal Chandra Mohan and Others etc. etc. v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others etc. etc., [1982] 1 SCC 39 and our attention was drawn to the observations at pages 66 and 67 of the said case in aid of the submission that right to property is still a constitutional right and therefore in exercise of that right if a landlord or an owner of a house lets out a premises in question there was nothing wrong. Shri Kacker submitted that the second limb of section 14(1)(e) of the Act should be read in such a way that it was in consonance with Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution. Otherwise it would be void as being unconstitutional. As a general proposition of law this is acceptable. We are unable to accept the submissions of Shri Kacker in the way he urged us to read the second ....