Gujarat High Court
Judgename :H.H.MEHTA
GULAMMINYA HASUMINYA - Appellant
Versus
SAKHAVATKHAN MOHMADKHAN - Respondent
Civil Revision1296 of 1987
Decided On : 10/20/2000
Within the period of two to three months from the date of purchase of the property, defendant had already come to know about the fact that plaintiff has purchased the suit property, he failed to make payment of arrears of rent only on the ground that he did not accept the plaintiff as his landlord because he wanted to purchase the suit property. This ground itself shows that he did not want to make payment of rent under a ground which was not bona fide and genuine.
[Para 31]
The Appellate Bench have rightly come to the conclusion that plaintiff has ably proved his case against defendant for eviction of suit premises on the ground falling under Sec. 12(3)(a) of the Act, and, therefore, whatever arguments advanced on this point against the case falling under Sec. 12(3)(a) of the Act are negatived by this Court and on that score, this Civil Revision Application be dismissed.
[Para 36]
Judgments of the Courts below are according to law and no interference is necessary by this Court and hence this Civil Revision Application is completely devoid of merits and it is dismissed.
[Para 37]
(b) Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (Central Act 4 of 1882) - Sec. 109 - Property transferred to plaintiff but no notice as to change of lessor given to lessee - Whether lessee entitled to such notice - Held, Sec. 109 of Transfer of Property Act does not impose any obligation either on lessor or on transferor to give notice of transfer to the lessee.
Section 109 of the T.P. Act does not impose any obligation on the lessor or transferor to give notice of transfer to the lessee. It only provides that if the lessee, not having reason to believe that such transfer has been made, pays rent to the lessor, he shall not be liabel to pay it over again to the transferee. If the lessee knows about the transfer, his payment of rent to the lessor with the knowledge of the transfer does not protect him against the liability to pay it over again to the transferee.
[Para 14]
(c) [Indian] Evidence Act, 1872 (Central Act 1 of 1872) - Sec. 116 - Estoppel - Denial of title - Defendant replied to the notice of arrear of rent and impleaded the new lessor for determination of standard rent - Held, defendant is estopped under Sec. 116 from denying the title of lessor - Reply to the notice is the acceptance of title of the lessor.
A tenant can take a dispute for title of ownership in the suit property of a person who has derived title from the original owner, looking to the facts and circumstances of this present case and evidence of defendant and his conduct, this Court is if of the view that at the first instance, defendant accepted the plaintiff as an owner of the suit property but subsequently he took a dispute in his written statement, and, therefore, Sec. 116 of the Indian Evidence Act is applicable to this present case as plaintiff has satisfactorily proved the case advanced in plaint that defendant has denied the title of the plaintiff. Both the Courts below have come to this finding on fact, consistently and concurrently thus finding cannot be said to be not according to law in any manner.
[Para 20]
( 1 ) ). THIS is a Civil Revision Application under S. 29 (2) of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (for short the "act"), filed by the original defendant challenging the correctness, legality and propriety of judgment dated 14th September, 1987 rendered by the appellate Bench of the Small Causes Court at Ahmedabad in Regular Civil appeal No. 143 of 1981, whereby the said Appellate Bench was pleased to dismiss the appeal filed by the original defendant and confirm the judgment ex. 46 dated 25th March, 1981 rendered by the learned Judge of the Small causes Court, Court No. 12 at Ahmedabad (who will be referred to hereinafter as the learned Judge of the trial Court) in H. R. P. Suit No. 4896 of 1977.
( 2 ) ). Here in this Civil Revision Application, Revision Petitioner was an original defendant and Revision Opponent was an original plaintiff in the suit being H. R. P. Suit No. 4896 of 1977 before the trial Court, and therefore, for the sakeof convenience parties will be referred to as plaintiff and defendant respectively at appropriate places.
( 3 ) ). The facts leading to this present Civil Revision Application, in a nutshell, are as follows :- the plaintiff is an owner of suit property bearing Municipal Census No. 448/21 situated in Doctors Chawl, Gomtipur near Usha Talkies in the City of Ahmedabad. When plaintiff purchased the said suit property, the defendant was already therein as a tenant in the said suit property. After purchase of suit property by the plaintiff, he informed about the suit property having been purchased by him to the defendant. It is the case of the plaintiff that defendant is a tenant in the said suit property for monthly rent at the rate of RS. 10/ - and tenancy month is according to English Calendar month. It is the case of the plaintiff that defendant is a tenant in arrears of rent for more than six months and that defendant has neglected to make payment of such rent due for more than six months within one month after service of suit notice under s. 12 (2) of the Act. As per the case of the plaintiff, as on date of notice dated 22nd September, 1977, defendant was in arrears of rent for the period from 7th October, 1974 to 21st September, 1977. Therefore, he, by addressing a suit notice dated 22nd September, 1977, terminated the tenancy of the defendant and called upon the defendant to hand over the possession of the suit property. On receipt of suit notice, the defendant replied the said notice and in that reply, he denied the title of the plaintiff over the suit property, and thereby the defendant has committed a breach of terms of tenancy, and therefore, also defendant is not entitled to retain possession of the suit property. Thereafter, plaintiff filed h. R. P. Suit No. 4896 of 1977 in the Court of the learned Judge of the trial court on or about 1st December, 1977, wherein he prayed for a decree of eviction of defendant from suit property directing the defendant to hand over the possession of said suit property and also for a money decree to recover rs. 368/- being an amount of arrears of rent calculated for the period from 7th October, 1974 to the date of the suit. He also prayed for other consequential reliefs in that suit.
( 4 ) ). The defendant appeared and contested the suit by filing his written statement Ex. 13, wherein he has practically denied all the pleadings of the plaintiff pleaded in the plaint of the suit. In written statement also, the defendant has contended that the plaintiff is not his landlord and there is no relationship of the landlord and tenant between plaintiff and himself and hence the plaintiff has no right to file the suit. As per the case of the defendant, the previous owners were Shri Yadukant S. Dave and Chandrakant S. Dave and that previous owners have not given him any attornment notice either oral or in writing. It is his case that he is a tenant of Yadukant S. Dave, and therefore, plaintiff is not entitled to claim a
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