M/S R.D. Sales Corporation And Anr vs Anoop Singh Gill

Headnote AI-drafted · Reviewed and approved

Four civil revision petitions were filed by the tenant, M/s R.D. Sales Corporation, against the landlord Anoop Singh Gill, arising out of a tenancy dispute concerning Shed No.433-A, Industrial Area, Phase-II, Chandigarh. The landlord instituted a rent petition seeking ejectment of the tenants under Section 13 of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restrictions Act, 1949, on grounds of change of user, material impairment of value and utility of the premises, the premises having become unfit and unsafe for human habitation, bonafide necessity of the landlord, and non-payment of rent from August 2007 onwards.

The tenants contested the petition primarily on the ground that the landlord had not acquired valid ownership rights through an agreement to sell, irrevocable general power of attorney, affidavit, and Will executed by the original allottee Smt. Swaraj Katari, and that such documents could not confer title or the right to file an ejectment petition. The tenants further contended that they had been paying rent directly to Smt. Swaraj Katari through account payee cheques and had never received any valid intimation to pay rent to the respondent-landlord.

The High Court took up all four revision petitions together as they involved the same parties and the same demised premises, and proceeded to dispose of them by a common order addressing questions of landlord-tenant relationship, maintainability of the rent petition, and the validity of the grounds for ejectment under the East Punjab Urban Rent Restrictions Act, 1949.

Catchwords: tenancy · ejectment · East Punjab Urban Rent Restrictions Act 1949 · change of user · bonafide necessity · agreement to sell · general power of attorney · landlord-tenant relationship · maintainability · non-payment of rent · material impairment · industrial premises · Chandigarh