The burden of proof regarding rent payments and the applicability of the Punjab Rent Act, 1995 were central legal points established in the judgment.

Judgment

Mr. Gurbir Singh, J.

Challenge in this petition is to the order dated 22.02.2024 (Annexure P-6), passed by learned Appellate Authority, Ludhiana, thereby modifying the order dated 25.07.2023 (Annexure P-4), passed by learned Rent Controller, Ludhiana and assessing interim rent to be paid by the petitioners.

2. The parties hereinafter are being addressed as per their original status in the rent petition.

3. The brief facts, necessary for proper adjudication of the present revision petition, are that the respondent Dharampal Raheja (the landlord) filed petition under Section 13 of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 (for brevity – the Act), for ejectment of the petitioner namely Gulshan Pahwa (the tenant) on the ground of non-payment of arrears of rent and personal bona fide necessity, submitting therein that the license was created on 14.08.2019 at a settled license fee of Rs.27,000/- per month for a period of six years, vide registered license/rent deed dated 05.11.2019. However, tenant failed to pay the rent regularly and amount of Rs.18,000/- out of monthly rent of Rs.27,000/- became due towards him for the month of March 2020. Thereafter, he did not pay rent @ Rs.27,000/- per month w.e.f. April 2020.

4. The tenant contested the rent petition taking preliminary objection that the petition was filed under the old Act, especially when the rent deed is dated 05.11.2019. The tenant also moved application for dismissal of the petition under provisions of Section 13 of the Act being not maintainable as the tenancy pertains to rent deed dated 05.11.2019. The said application was dismissed and it was held that eviction petition be deemed to have been amended and filed under the new Act i.e. the Punjab Rent Act, 1995 (hereinafter called – the Rent Act). It was further submitted on behalf of the tenant that the date of execution of rent deed is 05.11.2019 and he had been making the payment of rent to the landlord @ Rs.27,000/- per month in cash, but no receipt in lieu of that was ever issued by the landlord. There had been no occasion for non-payment of rent by the tenant except for a few months, under the compulsive circumstances of outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, which was duly redeemed by the tenant at a later stage. The transactions pertaining to payment of rent of the demised shop were duly recorded by the tenant in the audited balance sheets pertaining to the proprietorship concern of the tenant’s firm namely M/s Saksham Steels, Ludhiana. The copies of balance sheets from 2020-21 to 2022-23 reflecting regular payment of rent has been annexed as Annexure P-3 (Colly).

5. It has been further contended on behalf of the tenant that as per provisions of Section 25 of the Rent Act, the learned Rent Controller was required to calculate interim rent from the date of filing of ejectment petition but learned Rent Controller wrongly assessed provisional rent for a period of 41 months. It is further argued that learned Appellate Authority has rightly set aside the order dated 25.07.2023, whereby provisional rent was assessed by learned Rent Controller but has wrongly assessed interim rent to be Rs.10,67,837/- w.e.f. 01.03.2021, to be paid by the tenant on or before 27.03.2024 and has failed to take into consideration the audited balance sheets pertaining to the proprietorship concern of the tenant’s firm namely M/s Saksham Steels, Ludhiana from 2020-21 to 2022-23 Annexure P-3 (Colly). The landlord has not been issuing receipts in lieu of rent paid by the tenant, under the provisions of Section 13(2) of the Act.

6. Learned counsel for the landlord has argued that the tenant took a specific plea in the written statement that in the first week of May 2020, the landlord, by taking benefit of the lock-down situation, tried to dispossess the tenant from the demised shop by breaking the locks of the shutters forcefully, in the absence of tenant but could not succeed due to timely intervention of the tenant with the help of his neighb