AGARWAL, CJ.

( 1 ) THIS writ application, arising out of an order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Puri, acting as the appellate authority under the Orissa House Rent Control Act, 1967 (for short 'the Act'), by which he has allowed the appeal of the tenant against the order of rejection of his application for setting aside an ex parte order of eviction passed by the House Rent Controller, raises a question of construction of S. 13 of the Act, namely, as to whether the appellate authority was competent in law to entertain the appeal.

( 2 ) EARLIER, when this writ application was listed before a Division Bench of this Court, it referred the matter to a larger Bench to resolve some conflict between the observations made in different decisions of this Court, particularly in the case of Maganlal Sharma v. Smt. Maya Dutta, ILR (1979) 2 Cuttack 455 and Arun Sunder Das v. B. Subash Subudhi Rao, (1988) 65 Cut LT 169 Kandula Prabhakar Rao v. Tumulu Lakshmanamurty, (1987) 64 Cut LT 713.

( 3 ) THE facts may be briefly noticed : an application under S. 7 (2) (iv) of the Act was filed by the petitioner before the House Rent Controller, Puri, against O. P. No. 3 for his eviction from t