All these revisions are by the respective tenants in the various rent control petitions filed by the respective landlords. Even though all the Rent Control Petitions were separately tried, since the matter relates to portions of the same building, and more or less a common defence was also taken by the revision petitioners, though separate orders have been passed by the Rent Controller as well as the Appellate Authority, when the matter came before this Court, in these Revisions, a common argument was taken by all the revision petitioners, which is a general defence taken in all these cases. Since all the matters were heard together, I intend to dispose of the same by this common order, though facts relating to various Revisions are separately extracted.

2. C.R.P. No. 450 of 1997 :

In this case, the landlord is one S.A. Akbar, who is the absolute owner of shop No. 6 in the ground floor of premises No. 5. Purusawalkam High Road, Vepery, Madras-7. The agreed rent is Rs. 600/-. and it is payable on the first of every succeeding month. It is said that the first respondent, i.e., first petitioner herein is a registered firm of which the other petitioners are the partners. It i