1994 Supreme(AP) 464
Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : B.S.RAIKOTE, P.L.N.SHARMA
Srikakulam Subrahmanyam - Appellant
Versus
Pandeshwara Janardhan Rao - Respondent
C.R.P.No.3318/89
Decided On : 10-10-94
Advocates Appeared :
M/s. J. Venugopal Rao, A.V. Parthasarathy,N. Johnson,Mr. T. Veerabhadraiah
Headnote:AP BUILDINGS (Lease, Rent and Eviction) CONTROL ACT, 1960; Sec 10 (3)(c) Proviso - Bonafide requirement of additional accommodation - Burden of proving greater hardship - Tenant has to plead and prove that hardship caused to his outweighs advantage to landlord when bonafide requirement of landlord is established
Held : The proviso to Sec 10 (3)(c) of the Act is to the effect that the application for eviction shall be rejected, if the Rent Controller is satisfied that the hardship which may be caused to the tenant by granting eviction will outweigh the advantage to the landlord It is for the tenant to plead and prove that the hardship caused to him, in case of eviction, outweighs the advantage to the landlord
In this case, the landlord clearly pleaded that if additional accommodation is not granted to him for establishing AC Section in his hotel, any amount of inconvenience or hardship will be caused to him and he also adduced evidence of the customers The tenant did not even plead any hardship that may be caused to him, if an eviction order is granted in favour of the landlord much loss less any evidence in that regard The burden placed on the tenant by the statute has not been discharged
( 1 ) THIS revision has been referred to a Division Bench by Neeladn rao, J. by his order dated 7-3-1990. The learned Judge felt that in view of the Judgments of the Supreme Court in M/s. Central tobacco Co. , Bangalore Vs. Chandra prakash (1) 1969 All India Rent Control Journal 702; Phiroze Bamanji Desai Vs. Chandrakant m. Patel and others (2) AIR 1974 S. C. 1059, the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in Parasuramiah Vs. Lakshmamma (3) AIR 1965 A. P. 220 requires reconsideration, as the said judgment of the Division bench cast the burden of pleading and proving that the hardship caused to him by passing the eviction order will outweigh the advantage to the landlord. Accordingly, the Civil Revision petition has come up before us.
( 2 ) SINCE the entire C. R. P. is placed before us, it is necessary for us to refer to the facts and the findings recorded by the lower tribunals.
( 3 ) TENANT is the petitioner in this revision. Landlord is the respondent. The landlord filed an application for eviction under Sec. 10 (3) (a) (iii) (c) of the Andhra Pradesh Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1960 (Act 15 of 1960), ( for short The Act ), seeking eviction of the tenant from petition schedule premises on the ground that he requires the same for additional accommodation for the hotel business which he is running. It is stated in the application filed for eviction that originally the landjord is the tenant of the petition schedule building and that he has been running a hotel by name Bharat Cafe at Main Bazar, etukuru Road, Guntur. Though the premises was taken by him on lease earlier from one tripuramallu Radhakrishna Murthy, subsequently the same was purchased by him from the said owner. He also stated that he had taken on lease the contiguous buildings from others for the purpose of expanding his business. The tenant took the petition schedule premises on lease on 30. 7. 1978 for his business on a monthly rent of Rs. 150/- agreeing to vacate by 30. 7. 1982, which he failed to do for the convenience of the customers and therefore, the same is required for the said purpose bona fide by him. A registered notice dated 26. 7. 1982 was issued to the tenant on his failure to vacate the premises. A reply dated 10. 8. 1982 has been sent by the tenant raising false and untenable pleas including the one attributing oblique motive to the landlord for enhancement of the rent. He has also stated in the petition that he will undergo lot of inconvenience for the business for which he requires the premises, if the eviction is not ordered, and, therefore, the petition has been filed seeking eviction of the tenant.
( 4 ) THE tenant filed a counter resisting the application. He denied all the allegations made in the petition. He further stated that the alleged need to have the A. C. section for the hotel business is mala fide and it is a false pretext raised for seeking eviction and extracting higher rent. He also stated that in the said area, number of hotels and sweet-meat shops are available along the road and the demand for hotel business is decreasing, that the landlord took on rent the adjoining premises for lower rents from the persons mentioned in the petition and that the landlord and his son demanded enhancement of rent from Rs. 150/- to Rs. 300/- per month and on his refusal, this application has been filed. He stated that he has been running a small retail shop in the petition schedule premises, the area of which is less than 9 square Yards. He also referred to the notices exchanged between the parties earlier and also filing of an application under Sec. 8 of the Act by him when the landlord avoided receiving the rents. He referred to the enhancement of rents with regard to certain other tenants in respect of other premises and ultimately said that there is absolutely no need for the landlord to arrange A. C. Section and it is a make believe affair raised only for the purpose of extracting higher ren