JUDGMENT :

Shampa Sarkar, J.

1. The revisional application arises out of an order dated November 14, 2022, passed by the learned Judge, 5th Bench, Small Causes Court, Calcutta. By the order impugned, an application under Section 7(3) of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as “the said Act”), was allowed.

2. The petitioners were found to be defaulters and the defence was struck off. The learned court, upon considering the orders passed in the applications under Sections 7(1) and 7(2) of the said Act as also the exhibits and pleadings in paragraphs 7 and 8 of the application under Section 7(2) and paragraph 12 of the written statement, arrived at the conclusion that there were admitted dues which were not deposited. However, when the application under Section 7(1) of the said Act had been disposed of, an opportunity was given to the petitioner to deposit the admitted dues. The dues were not paid.

3. Thus, the court had no other alternative but to strike off the defence. The court found that the factum of deposit of rent from August 2014 to January 2018 also, could not be established by the petitioners.

4. By the order dated February 22, 2018, the learned Chief Judge, Small Causes Court had disposed of the application under Section 7(1) of the said Act, inter alia, holding that the application was formal in nature and within time. Unless the tenants were allowed to deposit the admitted arrears along with the current rent, they would suffer irreparable loss and injury. The tenants were permitted to deposit the admitted arrear of rent at the rate at which it was last paid, upto the end of the month prior to the filing of the suit, together with 10% interest per annum, in terms of their prayer. Liberty was further granted to deposit the current rent month by month within 15th of each succeeding month. The application under Section 7(2) of the said Act was kept pending for further adjudication.

5. The application under Section 7(2) came up for hearing before the learned court on July 18, 2022. The court recorded that the induction of the petitioner as tenants in respect of the shop room on the ground floor of the suit premises at a monthly rental of Rs.300/- payable according to the English calendar month was an admitted fact. The case of the tenants was that they had paid the rent regularly to the landlords. The landlords had received the rent for 19 months @ Rs.300/- from January, 2013 to July, 2014 at a time. Rent receipts were granted. The tenants further contended that the landlords did not issue any rent receipts for the months from August, 2014 to December, 2016, although the rent was received. The tenants had also paid rent from January, 2017 to September, 2017 but no rent receipts had been issued as per their statements. The rent for December, 2017 was sent by postal money order, but was refused by the landlords. Thereafter, the application under Section 7(1) of the said Act was filed for permission to allow the tenants to go on depositing the current rent from February, 2018.

6. By filing the application under Section 7(2), the tenant raised a dispute with regard to the arrears and the relationship. The learned court came to the finding that the relationship was admitted in the written statement and also in the other pleadings under Section 7(1) and 7(2) of the said Act. Moreover, the tenants’ case was that they had approached the plaintiffs for acceptance of rent and grant of receipts, which they had refused. The landlords filed an application under Section 7(3) of the said Act for striking off the defence for non-compliance of Section 7(1).

7. The learned court considered the postal receipts etc. and the other challans and came to the finding that the tenants were defaulters between August, 2014 to January, 2018 and although permission was granted to the petitioners/tenants to deposit the admitted arrears by the order dated February 22, 2018, but such opportunity was not availed of. The court could