The consent of the landlord for subletting must be in writing as per section 13 of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949.

Bhopinder Singh Dhillon, J.

1. This is a tenants petition challenging the order of the appellate authority, dated 28th July 1973, whereby the petitioner had been ordered to be evicted from the shop in question. Rulia Ram, landlord-respondent, had filed an application for eviction of the petitioner and Om Parkash on the ground of subletting and non-payment of rent. He averred that the shop in question was rented out to Om Parkash at a monthly rent of Rs. 30/- as per rent-note dated 18th June, 1962. At the time of the execution of the rent-note, one years rent was paid by Om Parkash. Two three months later, Om Parkash sublet the shop to Jagdish Chander, petitioner, who started his business of a cycle merchant under the name of "Madhok Cycle Store", in this shop. This subletting was done without the consent of the landlord. In the beginning, the landlord was under the impression that Jagdish Chander was employed with Om Parkash, but later on he came to know that Om Parkash had sublet the shop. He served Om Parkash with a notice dated 18th June, 1967, requiring him to vacate the shop in dispute.

2. The ejectment application was resisted on behalf of Om Parkash and Jagdish Chander and it was pleaded that the shop in question was actually rented out to Jagdish Chander and Om Parkash never took the shop on rent from the Landlord. Jagdish Chander averred that he was running the business of a cyle-store in the shop in question from the very beginning and he had been paying the rent to Rulia Ram Landlord, regularly. Om Parkash in a separate written statement pleaded that he never took the shop in question on rent from Rulia Ram, landlord. However, during the course of his statement, he stated that he signed the rent notes, Exhibit A/1 dated 18th June, 1962 and Exhibit A/3 dated 17th August, 1967, in favour of the landlord with a view to oblige him, so that any tenant whomsoever the shop was rented out could be ejected by the landlord.

3. On the pleadings of the parties, in addition to other issues, issue No. 2 was framed as follows :-

"Whether the relationship of landlord and tenant exists between the applicant and respondent No. 1 ? OPA.

The Rent Controller dismissed the application of the landlord and so did the appellate authority. The landlord came up in revision before this court when this Court remanded the case to the appellate authority with the direction that the parties be given further opportunity to adduce evidence and then the appeal of the landlord may be decided. The parties were given an opportunity to lead evidence and consequently, on the basis of the material on record, the learned appellate authority decided Issue No. 2 in favour of the landlord, thereby ordering the ejectment of the tenant.

4 I have heard Mr. D. R. Puri and Mr. Balraj Bahl, the learned counsel for the parties at a considerable length. After going through the material on record and taking into consideration the respective contentions raised by the learned counsel for the parties, I am of the opinion that this revision petition is liable to be dismissed. The case of Jagdish Chander, Petitioner, as now argued in Court, was not set up in the written statement. It was contended by Mr. D. R. Puri, the learned counsel for the petitioner, that Om Parkash obliged Jagdish Chander to execute rent-note. Exhibit A/1 in 1962 as the landlord was not known to Jagdish Chander and in fact the shop in question was rented out to Jagdish Chander and not to Om Parkash. This plea was not taken in the written statement. On the other hand, Om Parkash in his supplementary statement, which was recorded by the appellate authority after remand, admitted that to begin with he took the shop on rent for his own business and it was subsequently that he inducted Jagdish Chander. Om Parkash earlier took the plea that he executed rent notes, Exhibits A/l and A/3, at the instance of the landlord with a view to oblige him. He did not corroborate the story of Jagdish Chander as p