1994 (1) TMI 314
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....iness carried on in such building and there is no other suitable building available in the locality for such person to carry on such trade or business. 3. The parties, namely, petitioner and respondent in this Civil Revision Petition are hereinafter referred to as the tenant and landlord respectively. 4. The revision is directed against the order of the Rent Control Appellate Authority in R.C. A. No. 164 of 1992 dated 5-6-1993 confirming the direction of the Rent Control Court in R.C.P. 127 of 1978 to the tenant to put the landlord in possession of the petition schedule building and holding that the tenant is not entitled to the protection provided under the Second Proviso to Section 11(3) of the Act. 5. The findings of the Rent Control Court that the tenant committed default in payment of rent and the landlord bona fide needs the building for his own occupation to provide residence and business accommodation to his elder son which was confirmed by the Appellate Authority were not set aside either by the District Court (Revisional Authority) or by the High Court. These findings having become final and conclusive, the Appellate Authority in R.C. A. 164 of 1992 out of which the pr....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....upon heard the matter again and by order dated 19-7-1980 in R.C.A. No. 16 of 1979 dismissed the appeal. That order was challenged by the tenant before the District Court in R.C.R.P. No. 129 of 1980 and the provisional court by its order dated 26-11-1981 in R.C.R.P. No. 129 of 1980 found that the tenant is entitled to the protection provided under the Second Proviso to Section 11(3) of the Act. In the result, the Original Petition filed by the landlord was dismissed. However, the District Court did not disturb the findings of the authorities below regarding the arrears of rent and bona fide need of the landlord. Thereafter the landlord filed C.R.P. No. 683 of 1982 before this court challenging the order passed by the provisional authority in R.C.R.P. No. 129 of 1980. This court by its order dated 3-6-1986 in C.R.P. No. 683 of 1982 set aside the finding of the provisional court on the question of benefits under the Second Proviso to Section 11(3) of the Act and remanded the matter to the provisional court for reconsideration of that question. Thereafter, the provisional court by its order dated 10-10-1986 in R.C.R.P. No. 129 of 1980 found that the running of nursing home by the tenan....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....Shroud's Judicial Dictionary "business" has a more extensive meaning than the word "trade". According to Black's Law Dictionary, the term "business" has no definite or legal meaning. According to Wharton's Law Lexicon the word "business" in the Registration of Business Names Act, 1916 includes "profession". In Bourier's Law Dictionary "business" means that which occupies the time, attention and labour of men for the purpose of livelihood or profit, but it is not necessary that it should be the sole occupation or employment. It embraces everything about which a person can be employed. It is a word of much indefinite import, and the legislature could not well have used a larger word. According to the Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary, "business" means : (a) employment; (b) trade, profession or occupation; (c) a task or errand incumbent or undertaken; (d) matter requiring attention; (e) dealings, commercial activity, a commercial or industrial concern, The word "business" in the Oxford English Dictionary means: (a) A task appointed or undertaken; a person's official duty, part ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ourts we are afraid that the same will not be of any assistance to the tenant-revision petitioner to advance his case before this court in the instant proceedings. We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are construing the word "business" as occurring in a legislative enactment and hence its meaning must be held to depend upon the context, the facts of the particular case, the intention of parties or upon the purposes of legislation. The word "business" has no technical meaning but has to be read with reference to object and intent of the Act in which it occurs. The argument of learned counsel for the tenant would have been entitled to great weight had the word "business" occurred in the Second Proviso to Section 11(3) of the Act in isolation without being coupled with the word "trade". The difficulty arises because of the fact that the expression used in the Second Proviso to Section 11(3) of the Act is "trade or business". 17. The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court In Krishnakumar v. J. & K. State (AIR 1967 SC 1368) while interpreting the phrase "trade or business" occurring in Article 19 of the Constitution, afte....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....enant that the practice of the profession of an Advocate was not "business" within the meaning of Section 10(3)(a)(iii) of the Andhra Pradesh Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, I960 (for short the 'Andhra Pradesh Act') and therefore the landlord was not entitled to evict the tenant on the ground that he required the premises for the purpose of carrying on his profession as an Advocate. It was contended that Section 10(3)(a)(iii) of the Andhra Pradesh Act used the expression "business only" and not the expression "profession". The contention was negative by the High Court and in appeal by the tenant the Supreme Court on a consideration of the provisions of Section 10(3)(a)(iii) of the Andhra Pradesh Act held that the expression "business" occurring in Section 10(3)(a)(iii) of the Andhra Pradesh Act was used in a wide sense so as to include the practice of profession of an Advocate. Relying on the aforesaid decision of the Supreme Court, learned counsel appearing for the tenant, submitted that the word "business" occurring in the Act has to be similarly construed giving it a wide meaning so as to mean the conduc....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....urt in Mohanlal's case is of no assistance to the tenant-revision petitioner. 19. It was then argued by learned counsel for the tenant that a place used for "Thanneerpanthal" (distribution of drinking water) activity was held to be 'Business" by the Madras High Court by interpreting the word "business" in Section 10(3)(a)(iii) of the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act in P. Vairamani Ammal v. Kahnappa 1971 RCJ 303. The learned counsel submitted that the words "trade or business" occurring in Second Proviso to Section 11(3) should also be given a similar interpretation. For the reasons already stated the principle laid down in Vairamani Ammal's case can have no application to the facts and circumstances of the present case since in that case the court was construing the word "business" and not "trade or business". Learned counsel placed a decision reported in Dr. Bashir Uddin v. District Judge Bulandshahr 1978 (1) RCJ 199 wherein it was held that the word "business" used in 3rd Proviso to Clause (ii) of Section 21 of U.P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 in....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....t. Chief Justice M.S. Menon in his inimitable style and diction has distinguished the expression "profession" from "trade or business". His Lordship held that (at page 89 of AIR):-- the expression 'trade or business' connotes a commercial activity. The expression 'profession' does not and is virtually at the other end of the scale. What is important in deciding whether a person is carrying on a profession or not, is whether he is a member of an organised body with a recognized standard of ability enforced before he can enter it and a recognized standard of conduct enforced while he is practicing it. This is certainly not the test in deciding whether a person is carrying on a trade or business. "Profession" is a vocation in which a professed knowledge of some department of science or learning is used by its practical application to the affairs of others, either in advising, guiding, or teaching them, or in serving their interests or welfare in the practice of an art founded on. Even assuming that the word "business" is a word of ambiguous import and that it takes its content from its context, it cannot be said that the word &....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....fession in India was increasingly acquiring attributes of "trade or business". According to him, whatever be the popular conception or misconception regarding the role of today's lawyers and the alleged narrowing of the gap between a profession on the one hand and a trade or business on the Other, it is trite, that traditionally, lawyers do not carry on a trade or business nor do they render "service" to customers. The above observation of the learned Chief Justice applies with equal force to members of the medical fraternity as well. 25. In C.R.P. 1686 of 1978 this Court considered the question whether a doctor, who carries on a dispensary and clinic in a rented building, is entitled to claim the protection envisaged under the Second Proviso to Section 11(3) of the Act. The tenant there raised a contention that since he is depending upon the income derived from that business for his livelihood is not liable to be evicted. This Court after a detailed survey of decisions Indian and English held as follows : I do not find any reason to differ from the observation made by the eminent Judges who decided the case in Sethuamma Menon v. Meenakshi Amma AIR 1967 K....