P. Somarajan, J.

1. Challenging the concurrent findings of the Rent Control Court as well as the Rent Control Appellate Authority under Sections 12(1), 12(2) and 12(3) of the Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), the tenant came up with these two Revisions.

2. An application under Section 12 of the Act was filed by the landlords during the pendency of the Rent Control Petition claiming an amount of Rs. 45,000/- as arrears of rent, at the rate of Rs. 5,000/- per month. The tenant, in turn, filed objection disputing and denying the arrears of rent claimed by the landlords and, according to him, rent paid without default to its original owner one Hajira till the month of January, 2015. The Rent Control Court thereon considered the rival contentions and passed a detailed order dated 25.05.2015, finding that the rent is in arrears from April, 2014 onwards and thereby, allowed the application directing the respondent/tenant to deposit the arrears of rent at the rate of Rs. 5,000/- per month from April 2014, within one month and shall continue to deposit the future monthly rent at the said rate. It was confirmed in appeal, against which R.C.R. No. 147 of 2017 is preferred by the tenant. Pursuant to the order dated 25.05.2015, an order under Section 12(3) was also passed on 26.6.2015, by which the tenant was directed to put the landlords in possession of the building and stopped further proceedings in the Rent Control Petition. The said order was confirmed in appeal, against which R.C.R. No. 146 of 2017 is preferred.

3. Section 12 of the Act is extracted below for reference:

“12. Payment of deposit of rent during the pendency of proceedings for eviction - (1) No tenant against whom an application for eviction has been made by a landlord under Section 11, shall be entitled to contest the application before the Rent Control Court under that section, or to prefer an appeal under section 18 against any order made by the Rent Control Court on the application unless he has paid or pays to the landlord, or deposits with the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority, as the case may be, all arrears of rent admitted by the tenant to be due in respect of the building up to the date of payment or deposit, and continues to pay or to deposit any rent which may subsequently become due in respect of the building, until the termination of the proceedings before the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority, as the case may be.

(2) The deposit under sub-section (1) shall be made within such time as the Court may fix and in such manner as may be prescribed and shall be accompanied by the fee prescribed for the service of notice referred to in sub-section (4):

Provided that the time fixed by the Court for the deposit of the arrears of rent shall not be less than four weeks from the date of the order and the time fixed for the deposit of rent which subsequently accrues due shall not be less than two weeks from the date on which the rent becomes due.

(3) If any tenant fails to pay or to deposit the rent as aforesaid, the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority, as the case may be, shall, unless the tenant shows sufficient cause to the contrary, stop all further proceedings and make an order directing the tenant to put landlord in possession of the building.

(4) When any deposit is made under sub-section (1), the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority, as the case may be, shall cause notice of the deposit to be served on the landlord in the prescribed manner and the amount deposited may, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, be withdrawn by the landlord on application made by him to the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority in that behalf.”

4. Section 12 has got two limbs dealing with two situations; namely, pre-litigation phase and post-litigation phase regarding payment of rent. Both are dealt with under Section 12 of the Act. As far as the first limb, pre-litiga