IMPORTANT POINT
Allotment of a requisitioned house to non-Government person or body is without jurisdiction and bad in law.

JUDGMENT

Harjit Singh Bedi, J.

1. Leave Granted.

2. The facts leading to the appeal are as under: The property in dispute known as ‘Katras House’ built over an area of 1.7 acres of land on Circular Road, Ranchi was purchased by Late Shri Ganesh Chandra Dey vide registered sale deed dated 26th January 1933. World War-II broke out on 3rd September 1939 on which the Viceroy promulgated the Defence of India Ordinance 1939 under which the Defence of India Rules were issued. On 25th April 1942, Rule 75 A was inserted in the Defence of India Rules empowering the Central Government to requisition any property necessary or expedient for securing the defence of British India and other related matters. Japan entered World War-II on the side of Nazi Germany on the 7th December 1941, after its attack on the United States Seventh Fleet in Pearl Harbour, Hawai and soon after a string of victories over the Allies in South East Asia and upto Burma brought the Imperial Japanese Army to India’s Eastern doorstep. It was thereafter thought prudent to shift the headquarters of the Indian Army’s Eastern Command from Kolkata to Ranchi. Vast areas of land and other residential property were accordingly requisitioned under Rule 75 (A) ibid. Katras House too was requisitioned for this purpose. The World War ended in 1945 but the property continued to be remain under requisition. The Requisitioning and Acquisitioning of Immovable Property Act 1952 ( hereinafter called ‘the Act’) was thereafter promulgated and Section 23 thereof provided that all the old requisitions were now deemed to have been made under Section 3 of the Act but by virtue of an amendment made in 1970 Section 6 (1-A), the Central Government was not authorized to retain any property under requisition for a period beyond 17 years. The Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi however, on a misconception of the law transferred Katras House, undoubtedly a requisitioned property, to the Civil Surgeon, Ranchi without the consent of its owner and on vacation of the said property by the Civil Surgeon, vide by Order dated 30th April 1958, transferred the property to the Principal, Ranchi Women’s College (Respondent no.3 herein) under Section 11 (2) (b) of the Bihar Building Lease Rent and Eviction Control Act 1947 (hereinafter called the ‘Rent Act’ ) subject to a monthly payment of rent directly to the owner. In July 1995, the then owner of the property through his attorney, filed an Eviction Title suit no.8 of 1995 under the provisions of the Rent Act for eviction of Respondent no.3 alleging that the college was a tenant in the demised premises. Respondent No. 3 as well as the Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi appeared in the said Suitas Defendants and filed their written statements. Respondent no.3 took a categorical stand that Katras House had been requisitioned for purposes of the Army during World War-II and had been allotted to it by the Deputy Commissioner under the Act, and an application for its vacation would lie before the Deputy Commissioner, and as such the Court Civil had no jurisdiction to entertain the Suit. This Suit was eventually dismissed in default for non-prosecution in the year 1998. The compensation payable under Section 8 (2) of the Act was, however, regularly paid by Respondent no.3 to the owner. Katras House was purchased by Shri L.N. Dey from its owner by a registered sale deed dated 9th January 2001 and pursuant thereto the necessary mutations were made in the revenue record and it is the admitted position that the rent/compensation is now being received by the new owner. It is the case of the Appellant that a letter dated 23rd November 2002 was received from the Administrator, Ranchi Municipal Corporation that on inspection it had been found that Katras House was in a dangerous and uninhabitable state and a direction was issued under Section 247 (1) of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation Act 2001 that the building which had been declared as dangerous, should either be demolished or subject