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TMI Blog1986 (2) TMI 253X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Court, on further revision. M/s Girdhari Lal & Sons have filed this appeal with the special leave of this Court. 2. The Rent Controller and the Rent Control Tribunal concurrently found that Balbir Nath Mathur was the owner of the premises, that Om Prakash & Company was the tenant and that Girdhari Lal & Sons were the subtenants under Om Prakash & Company. The case of the appellants was that it was Balbir Nath Mathur that negotiated the lease and inducted them into possession and that they were not subtenants but the direct tenants of Balbir Nath Mathur. Even if they were subtenants only, they claimed that they were entitled to the protection of Sections 17 and 18 of the Delhi Rent Control Act. They alleged that the decree obtained by Balbir Nath Mathur was a collusive decree and that a fraud had been played upon the court to get rid of the appellant, M/s Girdhari Lal & Sons. In view of the concurrent findings that Om Prakash & Company was the tenant and M/s Girdhari Lal & Sons were the subtenants, we accept that finding and proceed to consider the question whether the appellants are entitled to the protection of Sections 17 and 18 of the Delhi Rent Control Act. 3. At the time whe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l, with effect from the date of the order, be deemed to become a tenant holding directly under the landlord in respect of the premises in his occupation on the same terms and conditions on which the tenant would have held from the landlord, if the tenancy had continued. 5. Rule 21 of the Delhi Rent Control Rules, 1959 provides that a notice of the creation or termination of subtenancy required under Section 17 shall be in Form "E". Rule 22 provides that unless otherwise provided by the Act, any notice or intimation required or authorised by the Act to be served on any person shall be served (a) by delivering it to the person; or (b) by forwarding it to the person by registered post with acknowledgment due. Form "E" provides for a statement of full particulars of the demised premises, such as the street, municipal ward and house number, names of the tenant and the subtenant, details of the portion sublet, rent payable by the subtenant, date of creation of the subtenancy, etc. 6. It may be worthwhile to restate and explain at this stage certain well-known principles of interpretation of statutes Words are but mere vehicles of thought. They are meant to express or convey one's thoug ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m. A court should give effect to plain words, not because there is any charm or magic in the plainness of such words but because plain words may be expected to convey plainly the intention of the legislature to others as well as judges. Intention of the legislature and not the words is paramount. Even where the words of statutes appear to be prima facie clear and unambiguous it may sometimes be possible that the plain meaning of the words does not convey and may even defeat the intention of the legislature; in such cases there is no reason why the true intention of the legislature, if it can be determined, clearly by other means, should not be given effect. Words are meant to serve and not to govern and we are not to add the tyranny of words to the other tyrannies of the world. 7. Parliamentary intention may be gathered from several sources. First, of course, it must be gathered from the statute itself, next from the preamble to the statute, next from the Statement of Objects and Reasons, thereafter from parliamentary debates, reports of committees and commissions which preceded the legislation and finally from all legitimate and admissible sources from where there may be light. R ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... all things in the letter, they have expounded to extend but to some things; and those which generally prohibit all people from doing such an act, they have interpreted to permit some people to do it; and those which include every person in the letter, they have adjudged to reach to some persons only; which expositions have always been founded upon the intent of the legislature, which they have collected, sometimes by considering the cause and necessity of making the Act, sometimes by comparing one part of the Act with another, and sometimes by foreign circumstances, so that they have ever been guided by the intent of the legislature, which they have always taken according to the necessity of the matter, and according to that which is consonant to reason and good discretion. Turner, C.J. himself added The passages to which I have referred, I have selected only as containing the best summary with which I am acquainted of the law upon this subject. In determining the question before us, we have therefore to consider not merely the words of this Act of Parliament, but the intent of the legislature, to be collected from the cause and necessity of the Act being made, from a compariso ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... decision - secondary situations. As regards these secondary situations, it may seem likely in some cases that the draftsman had them in contemplation; in others not. Where it seems likely that a secondary situation was not within the draftsman's contemplation, it will be necessary for the court to impute an intention to Parliament in the way I have described, that is, to determine what would have been the statutory intention if the secondary situation had been within parliamentary contemplation (a secondary intention). 14. It may not be out of place to refer here to what Harold Laski said in his Report of the Committee on Ministers' Powers The present methods of statutory interpretation make the task of considering the relationship of statutes, especially in the realm of great social experiments, to the social welfare they are intended to promote one in which the end involved may become unduly narrowed, either by reason of the unconscious assumptions of the Judge or because he is observing the principles of interpretation devised to suit interests we are no longer concerned to protect in the same degree as formerly.... The method of interpretation should be less analytical and mo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s who had been inducted into possession with the consent of the landlord. While so extending a protecting hand to the subtenant the legislature wanted to make sure that subtenants who had genuinely obtained the consent of the landlord alone should be entitled to that protection. The legislature wanted to prevent persons who had somehow managed to get into possession, having been inducted into such possession by the tenant or otherwise from putting forward baseless claims that they were inducted into possession with the consent of the landlord. So the legislature while offering protection to a subtenant who has been inducted into possession by a landlord has limited the protection to the subtenant who can establish the consent of the landlord by documentary evidence to which the landlord and the tenant or sub-tenant are parties. So it is provided that the previous consent of the landlord has to be in writing and that a notice in the prescribed manner has to be given to the landlord by the tenant or the subtenant. The essence of the requirement, therefore, is that the consent of the landlord to the subtenancy and the notice of the creation of the subtenancy have to be evidenced by wr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dents. The appeal is allowed in the manner indicated above. There will be no order as to costs. KHALID, J. (supplementing) - I have gone through the judgment prepared by my learned brother. I agree with the conclusion that the appeal has to be allowed. 20. We have before us two parties, both affluent. No tears need be shed either for the one or the other. The tenant before us, or to be precise the subtenant, is a firm which does not deserve any sympathy from us and that for an excellent reason. They had given an undertaking before this Court that they would withdrawn the suit filed by them for fixation of fair rent. This undertaking they did not respect till now, obviously with the oblique motive of compelling the landlord to get the rent reduced and at the same time walk away with an order from this Court avoiding eviction. Left to myself, I would have declined relief to the appellants or at least directed them to pay a sum of Rs 5000 every month as rent. However, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, where the conduct of the landlord is anything but wholesome, I agree with my learned brother in the order passed by him allowing the appeal. But, I would like to ma ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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