Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

6. The tenant namely Sardar Labh Singh died in Dec. 1972. The tenancy devolved upon his sons, namely, Mahendra Pal Singh Jasminder Singh and Jaspal Singh and widow Smt. Joginder Kaur.

7. The respondent No. 3 moved a petition under S. 21 of the Act before the Prescribed Authority/Civil Judge, Dehradun (Mussoorie) praying for an order of eviction of the petitioner Mahendra Pal Singh from the building in question. The eviction was sought on the ground that the respondent-landlord was due to retire from service of the Indian Army from the post of Colonel on 31-7-1982 and he had to vacate his official residence by Sept 30, 1982. He wanted the accommodation in question to run a Lodging house business therein to augment his income necessary to meet the ever-rising prices and to maintain the status and living standard of the family which he enjoyed during the course of his service and also to meet the education expenses of his growing children and later on to settle them in life. The other ground on which the release was sought by the respondent-landlord was that he bona fide required the premises in question for occupation by himself for residential purposes inasmuch as Mussoorie being his home-town, he wanted to settle there permanently. In Paragraph 3 of the application, it was stated by the respondent-landlord that he had to vacate his official residence situate at 27, Mall Road, Delhi Cantt. by 30th Sept. 1982 on account of cessation of his service due to retirement on superannuation w.e.f. 31-7-82. In paragraph 12 of the release application, it was stated that the tenant had three well established restaurant business being run under the name of Neelam and had recently constructed a Hotel building, where he was carrying on the lodging and boarding house business in the name and style of 'Hotel Neelam International' situate in the vicinity of the building in question. It was also alleged that the tenant had big hotel establishment in Bombay also and would not suffer any hardship in the event of his eviction from the premises in question. On the other hand, it was alleged, the landlord would encounter greater hardship in the event of release application being rejected. The application was filed on 13-9-1982.

8. The application for release was contested by the petitioner namely, Mahendra Pal Singh inter alia on the grounds that the alleged need of landlord was born of his mala fide and was a specious one; that the petitioner would be divested of his vital source of livelihood and would thereby suffer irreparable loss in case the order of eviction was passed against him; that the premises in dispute was given for a fixed period of 60 years vide registered lease deed dated 28-11-1970 and the lease period having not expired, the release application was not maintainable; and, that Sardar Labh Singh died in Dec. 1972 leaving behind his widow Smt. Joginder Kaur sons Jaswinder Singh and Jaspal Singh besides himself i.e. Mahendra Pal Singh, who are carrying on the hotel business in partnership and the tenancy devolved upon all of them and therefore, the application was legally not maintainable in the absence of joint tenants.