Eviction can be sought if land required for personal use: SC

Eviction can be sought if land required for personal use: SC
The Economic Times, January 12, 2010, Page 27

Our Bureau MUMBAI

A LANDLORD can seek eviction of his tenant from a commercial premises if he requires the premises for his own use. This was the sum and substance of a recent Supreme Court ruling which drew on previous judgements in related cases though contested under different rent acts.

The SC ruling is significant as the appeal was filed under Section 13 of the Haryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1973, which provides for the eviction of a tenant only from a residential, and not commercial, premises if the landlord requires it (the premises) for his own occupation.

The appeal in the SC was filed by a Gurgaonbased shop tenant after the High Court of Punjab and Haryana dismissed a revision petition filed by him that challenged an eviction order passed by the Rent Controller, Gurgaon, which was also upheld by the Appellate authority.

The SC noted that similar provisions—of a landlord not being able to seek eviction of a tenant from commercial premises—in the East Punjab Rent Restriction (Amendment) Act 1956 and Delhi Rent Act, 1958 were found to be unconstitutional by the court in earlier cases. It also held that a recent decision in favour of the landlord delivered by the court under the Haryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1973 was not a bad law as contended by the tenant’s counsel, who added in the same vein that the matter should be referred to a larger bench.

The judgement observed that the SC had earlier found a similar provision in the Delhi Rent Act unconstitutional as it was “violative of the doctrine of equality embodied in Article 14 of the Constitution of India.”