Pending petition to be viewed as one u/s 10(3)(a) for additional accommodation.

This petition is to revise an order of the Third Judge in the Court of Small Causes, by which he allowed the appeal by the tenant and dismissed the petition filed by the landlord for eviction. The landlord, who is the petitioner in this Court, purchased on 22nd November, 1961 the premises bearing Nos. 11-A-1 and 11-A-2 for a sum of Rs. 3,00,000. (three lakhs). The petitioner is a private limited company carrying on its business at Nos. 7 and 8, Mount Road, Madras, in electrical goods, radios, tape recorders and other goods. It has a branch in upstairs of Nos. 26 and 27 Rattan Bazaar, Madras, besides a godown behind the Life Insurance. Corporation building in Mount Road. All these buildings have been taken on lease on heavy rents by the petitioner for the purpose of its business. It appears the rent for the premises Nos. 7 and 8, Mount Road, known as Victory House, was Rs. 2,000 per mensem and since 1964, it has been increased to Rs. 2,500 per mensem. At the time of the purchase of the premises Nos. 11-A-1 and 11-A-2, Mount Road, there were three tenants, Royal Printing Works, My Coffee Bar, and Shridar & Co., The last of the tenants is the respondent before me. On the ground that its business had expanded enormously and that it required the premises for its own occupation to carry on its business, the petitioner applied separately for eviction, of the Royal Printing Press and the respondent and instituted a suit against My Coffee Bar in ejectment, since having regard to the quantum of monthly rent it was having for the portion in its occupation, the tenancy was, as the law stood then, outside the purview of the Madras Building (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1960. Subsequently, when the law was amended and the tenancy of My Coffee Bar came within the purview of the Act, the petitioner withdrew the suit and filed an eviction petition against My Coffee Bar. It is common ground that on 28th March, 1963 an eviction order was passed by the Rent Controller against the Royal Printing Works: About four months thereafter, a major portion of the part of the premises in the occupation of the Royal Printing Works was taken possession of by the petitioner. The petition against My Coffee Bar was dismissed by the Rent Controller in June, 1965, and the landlord’s appeal failed in March, 1966. But the Civil Revision Petition against the appellate order ended in a compromise on 14th March, 1967. My Coffee Bar consenting to an eviction order. So far as the petition against the respondent was concerned, it had a chequered career. It was strenuously resisted by the respondent. One of its objections was that during the pendency of the petition, the petitioner having taken possession of a portion of the Premises from the Royal Printing Works it was no longer entitled to maintain the petition, as it ought to apply for eviction only on the ground that it required additional accommodation. The Rent Controller overruled this specific objection on the ground that the matter should be viewed as on the date on the petition for eviction and not in the light of subsequent events. He also found that the petitioner did not own any building of its own in the city for carrying on its business, that its business had expanded manifold since 1937, the turnover amounting to as much as about Rs. 69,00,000 (sixty-nine lakhs) for the year ended 31st March, 1963, and that, in the circumstances, the requirement by the landlord of the premises for carrying on its business was bona fide. An eviction order was passed and it was contested by the respondent in an appeal under the provisions of the Act. The appellate Court came to the opposite conclusion, reversed the order and remitted the petition tor fresh disposal, directing the Controller to do so Viewing the petition as one for eviction on the ground that the petitioner required additional accommodation for the purposes of its business. The appellate Court took the view that, as the petitioner had during the pend