The legal representatives of a statutory tenant can be impleaded as legal representatives of the deceased statutory tenant under Order 22 Rule 3 of the Civil P.C.

1. Banwari Lal landlord-respondent had filed an application for ejectment of his tenant Darbari Lal in the Court of the Rent Controller, Sirsa. Hari Chand son of Darbari Lal tenant was also impleaded as respondent alleging him to be the sub-tenant. The ejectment was sought on the ground of subletting. The Rent Controller vide his order dated 5th October, 1976, passed an order of ejectment against the tenant. Feeling aggrieved against the said order. Darbari Lal tenant filed an appeal under the Haryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act (hereinafter to be referred as the Act) before the Appellate Authority. Hari Chand, the alleged sub-tenant, was impleaded as respondent in the appeal. During the pendency of the appeal, Darbari Lal tenant died on 8th Nov., 1976. Therefore, his son Hari Chand, who was already a party as an alleged subtenant, and his another son Gobind Ram as well as Smt. Bachni widow of a predeceased son of Darbari Lal made an application for being appointed as successors of the deceased tenant Darbari Lal. In the application filed by them, it was stated that they were residing with the deceased and therefore, they come within the definition of the tenant as defined in S.2 (h) of the Act. This application was contested on behalf of the landlord-respondent.

2. The Appellate Authority, after recording the evidence of the parties, came to the conclusion that Hari Chand and Gobind Ram were living separately from Darbari Lal deceased tenant and their business is also separate from him and consequently dismissed their application for impleading Hari Chand and Gobind Ram as legal representatives of Darbari Lal deceased. As regards Smt. Bachni, it was found that she being the widow of Darbari Lal s deceased son was residing with him and therefore, was entitled to be appointed as legal representative and therefore, an order appointing Smt. Bachni as the legal representative of Darbari Lal was passed. Feeling aggrieved against this order, Hari Chand and Gobind Ram have filed the present revision petition in this Court.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner vehemently contended that as a matter of fact the petitioners are entitled to be impleaded as legal representatives of the deceased tenant Darbari Lal under Order 22, Rule 3 of the Civil P.C. and they do not claim any right under the definition of the term tenant in Section 2 (h) of the Act which is to the following effect:-

""tenant" means any person by whom or on whose account rent is payable for a building or rented land and includes a tenant continuing in possession after the termination of his tenancy and in the event of such person s death, such of his heirs as are mentioned in the Schedule appended to this Act and who were ordinarily residing with him at the time of his death, but does not include a person placed in occupation of a building or rented land by its tenant except with the written consent of the landlord or person to whom the collection of rent or fees in a public market, cart-stand or slaughter-house or of rents for shops has been farmed out, or leased by municipal, town or notified area committee."

4. In support of his contention, he referred to Kishan Kumar V/s. Baldev Singh, (1974) 76 Pun LR 468. Reference was also made to Damadilal V/s. Parashram AIR 1976 SC 2229 for the proposition that the statutory tenancy was heritable and therefore, the appeal could not be dismissed as having been abated. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the respondents contended that the statutory tenancy is heritable for a limited purpose. Persons covered under the definition under Section 2 (h) of the Act are only entitled to claim themselves to be the tenant on the death of the original tenant and that too if the premises in dispute are residential buildings. According to the learned counsel, admittedly, the premises in dispute are non-residential, therefore, the petitioners are not entitled to be impleaded as heirs of the deceased tenant. In suppo