The court emphasized the importance of valid service of termination notice and the principle of estoppel in challenging the title of the landlord.

Valmiki J. Mehta, J. (Oral)

1. This second appeal is filed impugning the concurrent judgments of the courts below; of the trial court dated 11.10.2006 and the first appellate court dated 23.7.2013; by which the suit of the respondents/plaintiffs/landlords for possession and mesne profits has been decreed against the appellants/defendants/tenant who are the legal heirs of the original tenant Sh. Kundan Lal.

2. Sometimes the judgments which are passed by the District Courts are really exhaustive and good judgments. This is one such case where the first appellate court in my opinion has given a very thorough, exhaustive and well considered judgment. In a case such as the present therefore this Court would only reproduce the relevant portions of the impugned judgment of the first appellate court which gives the necessary reasoning and conclusions, with a very little discussion by this Court.

3. The issue in the present case is that whether the appellants/defendants do not have protection of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 by having inherited the tenancy rights under Section 2(l) of that Act because the contractual tenancy for residential purpose of the tenant Sh. Kundan Lal had been terminated in the life time of Sh. Kundan Lal. It be noted that under the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 whereas on the death of a tenant whose tenancy was for a commercial purpose the tenancy rights are inherited by all the legal heirs who are successors under the Hindu Succession Act, but, in tenancies which are residential tenancies where the contractual tenancy of a tenant is terminated during the life time of the tenant, then, the tenancy is personally inherited only by a limited class of persons and that too sometimes only for a limited period. The relevant provision of Section 2(l) of the Act provides that where the tenancy is for a residential purposes, and the contractual tenancy of the tenant is terminated in the life time of the tenant, the tenancy rights are inherited only by the family members who are financially dependent on the tenant on the date of the death of the tenant and are living with the tenant on the date of death of the tenant.

Section 2 (1) of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 in its entirety is reproduced below:-

(i) a sub-tenant;

“Section 2 (l) "tenant" means any person by whom or on whose account or behalf the rent of any premises is, or, but for a special contract, would be, payable, and includes-

(ii) any person continuing in possession after the termination of his tenancy; and

(iii) in the event of the death of the person continuing in possession after the termination of his tenancy, subject to the order of succession and to this clause, such of the aforesaid person’s-

(a) spouse,

(b) son or daughter, or, where there are both son and daughter, both of them,

(c) parents,

(d) daughter-in-law, being the widow of his pre-deceased son, as had been ordinarily living in the premises with such person as a member or members of his family up to the date of his death, but does not include,-

(A) any person against whom an order or decree for eviction has been made, except where such decree or order for eviction is liable to be re-opened under the proviso of section 3 of the Delhi Rent Control (Amendment) Act, 1976 (18 of 1976);

(B) any person to whom a license, as defined by section 52 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882 (5 of 1882), has been granted.

Explanation 1. - The order of succession in the event of the death of the person continuing in possession after the termination of his tenancy shall be as follows:-

(a) firstly, his surviving spouse;

(b) secondly, his son or daughter, or both, if there is no surviving spouse, or if the surviving spouse did not ordinarily live with the deceased person as a member of his family up to the date of his death;

(c) thirdly, his parents, if there is no surviving spouse, son or daughter or any of them, did not ordinarily live in the premises as a member of the family of the deceased person