Judgment

ALAGIRISWAMI, J. :- These two appeals by special leave are against the judgment of the High Court of Delhi allowing the appeals filed by the two respondents.

2. The respondents are landlords of two houses in the Karol Bagh area of Delhi. The house are built on lands given on long lease by the Delhi Improvement Trust to the rights, liabilities and assets of which the Delhi Development Authority has since succeeded.

3. Under the terms of the lease, subject to revision of rent, the lessees were to put up residential buildings on the leased lands and the lessees undertook :

"(vi) not to use the said land and buildings that may be erected thereon during the said term for any other purpose than for the purpose of residential house without the consent in writing of the said lessor; provided that the lease shall become void if the land is used for any purpose than that for which the lease is granted not being a purpose subsequently approved by the lessor."

The present landlords are not the original lessees but teir successors-in-interest. Portions of buildings have been leased for commercial purposes, a barber shop in C. A. No. 846 and in scooter repair shop in C. A. No. 1343. The Delhi Development Authority appears to have given notice to them, drawing their attention to the provision of the lease extracted above, and that as they had permitted the buildings to be used for commercial purposes contrary to the terms of the lease deed, the lease was liable to be determined and called upon them to discontinue the use of the land for commercial purposes, failing which they were asked to show cause why their lease should not be determined and the land, together with the buildings thereon, re-entered upon without any compensation to them. Thereupon the landlords issued notice to the tenants asking them to stop the commercial use of the buildings and later instituted the proceedings out of which these appeals arise. In both these cases the buildings had been put to commercial use even before 1957 when the Delhi Development Act of 1957 came into force.

4. The Controller dismissed the petitions filed by the landlords and the appeals filed by them were dismissed. They thereupon filed appeals to the High Court. A learned single Judge of the High Court taking a view contrary to two earlier decisions in Smt. Uma Kumari v. Jaswant Rai Chopra, (1960) 62 Pun LR 460 and S. P. Arora v. Ajit Singh, ILR (1970) 2 Delhi 130 referred the question that arose in these appeals to a Division Bench which took a view contrary to that taken in the two earlier decisions above referred to and decided in favour of the landlords.

5. The question that arises for decision in these cases is this. Are the landlords estopped or otherwise prohibited from getting possession of the property from the tenants because they themselves had let it out for commercial purposes. We shall set out the relevant portion of the statutory provisions regarding this question. Section 14 of the Delhi Rent Control Act 1958, which deals with the question of protection to tenants against eviction, in so far as it is relevant, is as follows :

"14. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other law or contract, no order or decree for the recovery of possession of any premises shall be made by any Court or Controller in favour of the landlord against a tenant :

Provided that the Controller may, on an application made to him in the prescribed manner, make an order for the recovery of possession of the premises on one or more of the following grounds only, namely -

(c) that the tenant has used the premises for a purpose other than that for which they were let........

(i) if the premises have been let on or after the 9th day of June, 1952, without obtaining the consent in writing of the landlord; or

(ii) if the premises have been let before the said date without obtaining his consent.

(k) that the tenant has, notwithstanding previous notice, used or dealt with the premises in a manner