JUDGMENT

R.C. Lahoti, J.-A suit based on landlord-tenant relationship, filed by the appellant against the respondent, on the ground available under Section 13(2)(v) of the Haryana Urban (Control of Rent) & Eviction Act, 1973 (hereinafter the Act , for short) was decreed by the Rent Controller, Rohtak and maintained in appeal by the Appellate Authority. In a revision preferred under Section 15(6) of the Act, the High Court has set aside the findings of the two authorities below and directed the application seeking eviction of the respondent to be dismissed. Feeling aggrieved, the landlord has filed this appeal by special leave.

2. Under Section 13(2)(v) of the Act, on an application filed by a landlord seeking to evict his tenant, the Controller may, after giving the tenant a reasonable opportunity of showing cause against the application, make an order directing the tenant to put the landlord in possession of the building if the Controller is satisfied that the tenant has ceased to occupy the building for a continuous period of four months without reasonable cause.

3. The existence of landlord-tenant relationship between the parties is not in dispute. The suit accommodation is a shop situated in commercial locality. The respondent seems to be a petty shopkeeper. He sells sweets and vends tea from the suit shop. According to the appellant, the respondent had ceased to occupy the shop for a continuous period of four months without reasonable cause. The period during which the premises are alleged to have remained without occupation is since February 1990 till the date of filing of the application, i.e. 14.6.91.

4. A perusal of the decision of the Controller shows that overwhelming evidence was adduced by both the parties in support and denial of the averments made in the application seeking eviction. Some pieces of evidence adduced by the landlord need to be noticed briefly. Meter Reader of the locality was examined to show that there was no consumption of electricity during this period. Repeated notices, eight in number, were sent through registered A/D post by the landlord to the tenant during this period which were all returned with the postal endorsement that in spite of repeated attempts made by the postman, stretched over a period of about one week in each case, no one was available at the given address to accept the service of registered letter and the premises were found closed. The postman deposed to these facts. Undisputedly the address as given on each of the letters was correct and related to the suit premises. The court process server was examined as deposing that on several occasions he had gone to the suit premises for effecting service of the court summons but he failed to effect service on account of none being available at the premises which were invariably found locked. The landlord had arranged for photographs of the suit premises being taken. The photographer was examined to prove the photographs, tendered in evidence, which showed the suit premises closed and locked while adjoining shops were open and the space just in front of the shop and immediately abutting it was being used for parking cycles which would not have been practical unless the suit premises were closed and not in use. There is other oral evidence including the statement of landlord himself to support the plea of the landlord.

5. The tenant did examine a few witnesses of the locality who deposed to the shop having continued to remain in use and occupation of the respondent-tenant. However, the stand taken by the respondent in his pleadings, examination-in-chief and cross-examination has been shifting one. To begin with, his stand was that the shop had never remained closed much less for a continuous period of more than four months. However, at one place his stand was that he had remained sick for sometime and therefore had gone irregular in opening the shop and during sickness opened the shop for a few hours in a day. No medical evidence was add