Petition for eviction held maintainable for revisional Court.

Order.-All these revision petitions arise out of a common judgment and the question of law that arises in these revision petitions is one and the same. It is enough to note the facts of one of the cases.

2. The revision petitioners are the owners of premises bearing Door No. 25, Errabalu Chetty Street, Madras - 1. The respondents are tenants in various portions of the said building. The second petitioner (Abidali) in all these petitions is carrying on business in pipes and sluice valves under the name and style of ‘International Sales Corporation’, in Door No. 3/13, Vanniar Street, Madras. It is a rented premises. It is admitted that the business carried on by the revision petitioners in No. 25, Errabalu Chetty Street, Madras, is a different business than the one which the second petitioner is carrying on at No. 3/13, Vanniar Street. Stating that the second petitioner bona fide required the portions in the occupation of the respondents herein for his own business purposes he filed the petitions before the Rent Controller under section 10 (3) (a) (iii) of the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act). By way of abundant caution, they also filed petitions under section 10 (3) (c) of the Act for additional accommodation should the Court hold the other applications were not maintainable. The Rent Controller held that the requirement of the premises for the occupation of the second petitioner was bona fide and ordered eviction under section 10 (3) (a) (iii) of the Act. It was further held by him that section 10 (3) (c) of the Act was not applicable.

3. Aggrieved by that order the tenants preferred appeals to the Court of Small Causes, Madras (Second Judge). The Appellate Authority was of the view that in so far as the second petitioner is a partner in the business called ‘Univerpal Hardware Mart’ which is being carried on in Door No. 25, Errabalu Chetty Street, Madras, it was not open to him to get an eviction under section 10 (3) (a) (iii) of the Act. He also held that the application under section 10 (3) (c) of the Act was not maintainable. It is under these circumstances the revision petitions have arisen.

4. Mr. K. Parasaran, learned counsel for the revision petitioners urges with considerable force that the business carried on at 3/13, Vanniar Street, is an entirely different business than the one which is carried on by the second petitioner at No. 25, Errabalu Chetty Street, in partnership with other revision petitioners. In such a case section 10 (3) (a) (iii) would apply. So long as these businesses are different, for that business it would be open to the second petitioner to seek eviction of the tenant from the petition-mentioned premises and his rights cannot be negatived because he happens to be a partner in the business carried on at No. 25, Errabalu Chetty Street. That would be against the spirit of the Act. In fact, a Division Bench of this Court in Easwaran Chettiar v. Subbarayan1, in dealing with a case of same business being carried on by a landlord in two different premises held that the word ‘a business’ occurring in section 10 (3) (a) (iii) would mean any business. This was in fact the ruling laid down by a single Judge earlier. But a division Bench in C.R.P. No. 2343 of 1971 dated 2nd May, 1973 (shortly reported in V. R. Jayaraman v. N. S. Ramalingam2) clarified the position and held if there are two different businesses and with reference to one of the businesses that is carried on by the landlord in a rented premises, if he wants to occupy a portion of that nonresidential building which belongs to him, such an application would be maintainable under section 10 (3) (a) (iii). That ruling would govern this case. In this view, order of the Appellate Authority is liable to be set aside.

5. Mr. M. R. Narayanaswamy, learned counsel for the tenant supports the order of the Appellate Authority and relies upon a decision of Veeraswami, J., as he then was, reported in Glamour Sa

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