The Appellate Authority has the power to allow the amendment of an application under Section 21 (1) (a) of the U. P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972, to implead all the heirs of the deceased tenant, in the interest of justice and to avoid multiplicity of suits.

M. P. Singh, J.

1. The present writ petition arises out of proceedings under section 21 (1) (a) of U. P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 (U. P. Act XIII of 1972) (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

2. The petitioner is a tenant. The admitted facts are that the accommodation in dispute is a non residential building known as Minerva castle situate in Kulri, Mussoorie. The petitioner is running a hotel in the said premises. Labh Singh, who was the tenant, died in 1972 leaving behind his widow Smt. Jaswendra Singh and his three sons, including the present petitioner Mahendra Pal Singh.

On 18-9-1982 an application under section 21 (1) (a) of the Act for release of the accommodation was filed on the ground of personal need.

3. The tenant contested the said application on the ground that the need of the landlord is not bonafide. The landlord possessed other properties also and he was not going to settle down at Mussoorie. In fact he wanted to dispose of the property after evicting the petitioner. The application under section 21 (1) (a) of the Act was not maintainable since the lease was for a fixed term. It was further stated that the application was not maintainable as all the heirs of Labh Singh were not impleaded as defendants in the case who are all tenants in common.

4. After considering the entire evidence on the record the learned Prescribed Authority allowed the application under section 21 (1) (a) of the Act by his order dated 8-9-1983 after deciding all the points in favour of the landlord, including the question of maintainability of the application.

Aggrieved against the order dated 8-9-1983 the tenant filed an appeal under section 22 of the Act before the learned District Judge who by his order dated 22-12-1983 allowed the same and remanded the case back to the Prescribed Authority to decide the same afresh.

5. Aggrieved against the said order dated 22-12-1983 the landlord filed a writ petition no. 4104 of 1984 Col. P. N. Bahuguna v. District Judge in this court which was decided by Hon'ble V. K. Khanna, J. on 12-2-1987. The writ petition of the landlord was allowed. The order of the learned District Judge dated 22-12-1983 was quashed and a direction was given to the learned District Judge to decide the appeal himself within two months. Before this Court a controversy was raised about the effect of non impleadment of all the heirs of Labh Singh in the application under section 21 (I) (a) of the Act. This court while deciding the writ petition took a view that since "admittedly, the parties have led evidence on this point, the appellate court should have decided the question on the basis of the evidence on the record. It was also observed that in case the plea taken by the tenant is established, the Appellate court would be entitled to record a finding on that basis and necessary legal consequence would follow as a result of recording that finding."

6. After the order of this Court the case went back again to the learned District Judge, Dehradun who by his order dated 1-5-1987 has given an opportunity to the landlord-respondent to implead other legal heirs of the deceased Labh Singh, if the landlord so likes. The application for amendment, if any, could be moved within a period of 1C days from that date. It may be mentioned that this was not a final order passed by the learned District Judge. It was only a step in the progress of the appeal. The appeal is still pending before the learned District Judge. gainst this order the present writ petition has been filed in this Court on 21-5-1987. The writ petition has been admitted and further proceedings in the appeal had also been stayed.

On 18-9-1987 a supplementary affidavit has been filed by the petitioner in this Court in which paragraph 4 makes a mention that the learned District Judge has allowed the application of the landlord impleading all the heirs of deceased Labh Singh by order dated 11-5-1987. The exact order passed by