IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Decree passed by civil court is valid and executable which is not interdicted by applicability of the Act to area in question.
(2) Rights of parties have to be determined on the date of filing of suit.

JUDGMENT

Hemant Gupta, J.

1. This judgment shall dispose of two appeals arising out of judgment dated 16.12.2021 passed by the High Court of Judicature of Rajasthan, Jodhpur whereby the tenant’s revision petition against the decree for possession was dismissed.

2. For the sake of convenience, the facts in Civil Appeal No. 2816 of 2022 (Shankarlal Nadani v. Sohanlal Jain) are mentioned hereinafter.

3. The appellant’s father was the tenant of Shop No. 4 situated at Jain Katla, Bikaner Road, Suratgarh since 1982, whose owner was the father of the respondent herein at that time. The premises were let out on lease for monthly rent of Rs.583.33. After the death of the appellant’s father, the shop was continuing for monthly tenancy of the appellant. The premises in question was not in the urban area when the suit for possession was filed on 18.4.2013 after serving a notice of termination of tenancy under Section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, For short, the ‘TP Act’. During the pendency of the suit, the State Government issued a notification on 11.7.2014 extending the provisions of the Rajasthan Rent Control Act, 2001, For short, the ‘Act’, w.e.f. 11.5.2015.

4. The Civil Court passed the decree for possession against the appellants on 28.5.2015 even though the Act became applicable to the area in question w.e.f. 11.5.2015. Aggrieved against the said judgment and decree, the appellants filed first appeal before the Additional District Judge, Suratgarh which was dismissed on 5.10.2021. In the second appeal before the High Court, the appellants relied on the Division Bench judgment of the Rajasthan High Court reported as K. Ramnarayan Khandelwal v. Shri Pukhraj Banthiya 2017 SCC OnLine Raj 4178 wherein it has been held that the decree in civil suit could not be passed after the applicability of the Act to the area in question. The High Court in the impugned judgment found that such judgment has been stayed by this Court in Special Leave Petition, therefore, the judgment is not binding. In view of the said fact, the High Court held that the decree in civil suit could be passed as the same view was adopted by another co-ordinate Bench of the High Court in another case⁴[ Mohd. Rafiq v. Hanuman Sahai & Ors. (SBCWP No. 16681 of 2019)] and consequently, dismissed the appeals filed by the appellants.

5. Learned counsel for the appellants argued that the Special Leave Petition arising out of the Division Bench judgment of the Rajasthan High Court in K. Ramnarayan Khandelwal and other similar cases are pending final disposal before this Court and that, therefore, the present appeals should also be heard along with the said matters. But we do not think so. Though, ideally all cases in which the same or similar questions are pending, are taken up together, but there is no bar for us to deal with the matters that come up before us. Once the question of law is answered in one matter, all other matters, pending at various stages, will follow suit. In any case, we find that the interest of the appellants is materially different from the interest of the petitioners in the Special Leave Petition(s) which are pending. In the present case, the appellants are tenants whose interest is in continuing to be in possession whereas the petition(s) pending before this Court are preferred on behalf of the landlord. We have heard Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellants assisted by Mr. Deepak Prakash, learned Advocate on Record on the legal question as to whether the decree passed by the civil court after the Act is made applicable to the area in question can be executed.

6. The Act was applicable in the first instance to such of the municipal areas which were comprising of the District Headquarters in the State and later on to such of the other municipal areas having a population exceeding fifty thousand as per 1991 census as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify from time to time as