The affidavit required to be filed under Section 25B read with the Third Schedule of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958, as amended, may refer to the statements made in the accompanying application and say that these statements are true to the knowledge of the deponent.

V S. Deshpande and Harish Chandra J.

( 1 ) THIS question referred to the larger Bench is bsiefly whether the affidavit required to be filed under Section 25 B read with the Third Schedule of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (the Act), as amended, shall itself contain the grounds and the facts on the basis of which leave to contest the appliction for civiction is sought or whether the said grounds and facts having been recited in the accompanying application the affidavit may only refer to the statements made in the application and say that these statements are true to the knowledge of the deponent. The question arises in this way.

( 2 ) THE respondent landlady filed an application for the eviction of the appellant tenant under the summary procedure laid down in Chapter IIIA of the Act which includes Section 25 B. The tenant was served with the summons in the form prescribed by the Third Schedule. He made an application for leave to contest the application for eviction and swore an affidavit in which the statements made in the accompanying application were affirmed to be true. The Addl. Controller referred to the following words in the affidavit :

" (1) That the accompanying application under Section 25 B sub-Secti (4) of the Delhi Rent Control Act has been drafted on my instructions and same has been read over to me and all the factsst ated in sub paras (a) to (p) are true and correct. (2) That the facts disclosed in paras (a) to (p) of the accompanying application be read as part of this affidavit, these are not reproduced herein for reasons of brevity. (3) That the facts stated in paras referred to above i. e. (a) to (p) of the accompanying application are true and correct. "the learned Addl. Controller expressed the following opinion on this affidavit:

"the petition under Section 25 B or any part thereof cannot be read as part of the affidavit filed by the respondent unless these parts of the petition are reproduced in the affidavit and the affidavit before the Oath Commissioner is attested. The affidavit is solemn affirmation before the Oath Commissioner. The Oath Commissioner on the solemn affirmation being made before him certifies that the deponent has solemnly affirmed before him that the contents of the affidavit which has been read over and explained to him are true to his knowledge. What is affirmed before the Oath Commissioner and so certified by him is the contents of the affidavit. The contents of the petition are not read over and explained to the petitioner and therefore, has "not been affirmed to be true and correct before the Oarh Commissioner. Therefore, merely saying that the facts disclosed in para No. (a) to (p) of the application be read as part of this affidavit is not sufficient to convert the petition under Section 25 B into an affidavit. The affidavit as disclosed above does not disclose any tact on which the leave to contest the petition for eviction can be granted. Under these circumstances, I am constrained to dismiss the petition under Section 25 B of the D. R. C. Act. "

( 3 ) IN considering this revision petition against the above order, the material considerations are that the tenant is served with the summons in the form of Third Schedule which informs him what he has to do and if he complies with the direction given to him in the said summons, then he would be entitled to seek the benefit of the leave to contest the application for eviction on compliance of Section 25 B, sub-see. (4) and (5 ).

( 4 ) THE last paragraph of the summons served on the tenant informs him as follows:

"leave to appear and contest the application may be obtained on an application to the Controller supported by an affidavit as is referred to in subsection (5) of Section 25 b. "

( 5 ) THE Third Schedule in which the form of the summons is set out is a part of the Act. It is also expressly referred to in sub-section (4) of Section 25b. The two provisions have to be read together and an integrated meaning of the two has to be

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