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During pendency of the suit, an application under section 15 of the Bihar Building (Lease, Rent & Eviction) Control Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the BBC Act') was moved by the petitioner, who happens to be the landlord, for a direction upon the tenant/ the private respondent to pay arrears of rent as well as current rent. The prayer of the petitioner was rejected and this has become the bone of contention in the present writ application.

Stand of the earned senior counsel for the petitioner is that Section 15 of the BBC Act does entail and confer a right upon a landlord to claim not only arrears of rent subject to the law of limitation but even current rent. Since no payment of rent was being made by the tenant from July 2006, therefore, the petitioner was compelled to file such an application.

The ambit of Section 15, which was a subject matter of challenge in the case of Priyavarta Mehta v. Amrendu Banerjee, reported in 1996 (1) PLJR 732, came up for consideration. The Full Bench went into the interplay as well as validity of Section 15 of the BBC Act and came to a considered opinion about its validity in following words, which are reproduced herein below :-

In view of the Full Bench decision, the right of the petitioner or the landlord to claim arrears as well as current rent cannot be disputed as a legal proposition. However, in the present case, on a reading of the order passed by the learned Munsif it is evident that in the plaint itself the petitioner had made a specific averment that he is filing the eviction suit on the ground of personal necessity and so far as claim of arrears of rent etc. is concerned, he may file yet another proceeding in this regard. It is this assertion or declaration in the plaint which compelled the learned Munsif to hold that the application under Section 15 of the BBC Act was uncalled for.