IMPORTANT POINT
Tenant in possession of tenanted premises cannot challenge title of the landlord.

JUDGMENT :

T.S. THAKUR, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises out of an order dated 9th July, 2010 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh whereby Civil Revision Petition No.580 of 2005 filed by the appellant has been dismissed and order dated 5th November, 2004 passed by the Rent Controller, Phagwara, dismissing a petition under Section 13-B of the East Punjab Urban Land Restriction Act, 1949 upheld.

3. The suit premises comprise a shop in a building bearing No.XVI/258/1 situate at Banga Road, Phagwara. It was let out to the respondent-tenant by the appellant who was born and brought up in India but having spent over 30 years in U.K. has returned in the year 2000 with the intention to settle down and establish a hotel at Phagwara his home town. An eviction petition under Section 13-B of the East Punjab Urban Land Restriction Act, 1949 was filed by the appellant on the ground that as a Non Resident Indian in need of the shop for his own use, he was entitled to have the same vacated from the respondent-tenant.

4. The eviction petition was contested by the respondent on several grounds including the ground that the appellant was not a NRI and that the eviction petition was barred by the provisions of Order 2 Rule 2 CPC. It was also contended by the respondent-tenant that although he was a tenant in occupation of the premises under the appellant, the sale-deeds relied upon by the respondent did not relate to the land underlying the shop in question.

5. By an order dated 5th November, 2004, the Rent Controller dismissed the eviction petition filed by the appellant holding that the appellant had failed to prove his ownership over the demised premises for a period of five years before the filing of the eviction petition. The Rent Controller held that the deposition of the witnesses appearing on behalf of the appellant did not satisfactorily prove that the building comprising the shops one of which happened to be the suit shop was constructed on the land purchased by the appellant in terms of the two sale-deeds set up by him. The Rent Controller was of the view that although the sale-deeds in question had been proved by the appellant, he had failed to co-relate the same to the suit shop or other shops over which he claimed ownership. The Rent Controller, therefore, dismissed the eviction petition no matter the appellant's case that he was an NRI and had returned home to set up his own business was accepted.

6. Aggrieved by the judgment and order passed by the Rent Controller, the appellant filed revision petition No.580 of 2005 before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. An application for permission to lead additional evidence filed by the appellant in the said revision petition to establish that the sale-deeds proved by the appellant at the trial, indeed related to the land comprising the shop in dispute was dismissed by the High Court by its order dated 9th July, 2010 and so also the revision petition. The High Court concurred with the view that the appellant had failed to prove that he was the owner of the suit shop for more than five years prior to the filing of the petition, a condition essential for invoking the provisions of Section 13-B of the Act. The High Court also held that the additional evidence sought to be adduced was very much within the knowledge of the appellant and could have been adduced by him if only he was diligent in doing so. Additional evidence, could not, observed the High Court, be allowed to fill up the lacunae in the appellants’ case.

7. Section 13-B of the East Punjab Urban Land Restriction Act, 1949 reads as under:

“13-B. Right to recover immediate possession of residential building or scheduled and/or non-residential building to accrue to Nonresident Indian – (1) Where an owner is a Non-Resident Indian and returns to India and the residential building or scheduled building and/or non-residential building, as the case may be, let out by him or her, is required