SECTION 19 OF THE SLUM AREAS (IMPROVEMENT AND CLEARANCE) ACT, 1956 APPLIES TO BUILDINGS IRRESPECTIVE OF THE QUESTION WHETHER THEY ARE USED FOR RESIDENTIAL OR NON-RESIDENTIAL PURPOSES.

( 1 ) THE question referred to the Full Bench is whether section 19 of the Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956 (simply called the "act" hereafter applies to a building which is used for a purpose other than residential.

( 2 ) THE petitioner landlord obtained an order for the eviction of the Respondent No. 2 tenant from a premises which is situated in a slum area. He filed a petition under section 19 (l) (b) of the Act before the Competent Authority for permission to execute the order of evic- tion. The permission was refused by the Competent Authority. The said order was upheld by the Financial Commissioner in an apeal filed by the petitioner under section 20 of the Act. The petitioner thereup- on filed the present petition under Article 227 of the Constitution with a view to get the said orders set aside.

( 3 ) THE main ground on which the validity of the orders refusing the permission has been impugned is that section 19 of the Act protects from eviction only those tenants who are using the premises occupied by them for residential purposes. If such tenants do not have the means to find alternative accommodation then their eviction from the premises would result in the creation of a fresh slum by them as they would necessarily try to live in another slum after being evicted from one. On the other hand, tenants using the premises for non-residen- tial purposes would already be having some other place to live in. By being evicted from the premises they would lose their place of busi- ness but would continue to reside in their residences. It is argued that as section 19 does not apply to premises used for non-residential purposes, the Component Authority and the Financial Commissioner had no jurisdiction to extend the protection of section 19 to the tenant respondent No. 2 who is a company using the premises for non-residential purposes.

( 4 ) THE concept of a "slum" both in the dictionaries as well as in Volume II of Encyclopadia Britannica is that is relates to urban residential areas. We have, therefore, to see whether the concept ot a "slum" in the Act is the same or different, that is to say, whether it applies only to premises used for a residential purpose or it applies also to permises used for other purposes. A scrutiny of the scheme of the various provisions of the Act brings out the following :--

(1) Section 2 (b)-the definition of "building"-includes any structure or erection or any part of a building as so defined but does not include plant or machinery comprised in a building. The object of this definition is to show that any structure or erection would be a building. It makes no distinction between a kachha or a pucca structure. The reason obviously is that buildings in a slum area are most likely to be in a had condition. It is significant, therefore, that the plant or machinery situated in such a building are not included in a building. This indicates two things. Firstly, the Act contempl ates bulidings in a slum area being used for housing a plant or machinery. Since a building housing a plant or machinery can ordinarily be used only for non-residential purpose, a building used for a nonresidential purpose is included in the definition of a "building" in section 2 (b ). Secondly, the plant or machinery are exempted from the definition of a "building" because a building can be asked to be compulsorily improved under Chapter III or demolished under Chapter IV of the Act, and in either event, the plant or machinery in the building would not be touched by the action taken against the budding. A Division Bench of this Court in Hafij Ali Hassan v. The Administrator for the Union Territory of Delhi, (Civil Writ No. 44 of 1966 decided on April 26, 1967) took this feature alone into account in deciding that the Act applies to buildings used for non-residential purposes. But we would have to consider all the relevant provisions In the Act before coming to the conclusion whether the concep