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TMI Blog2002 (7) TMI 755X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ness which presently he is carrying on in rented premises. Respondents 2 and 3 being major sons of the widow respondent no.1, such requirement clearly falls also within the purview of Section 23-A (b) of the Act. The proceedings initiated before R.C.A. do not suffer from want of jurisdictional competence. To be an alternative accommodation relevant within the meaning of Section 12(1)(f) or Section 23-A(b) it must be 'of his own', that is, the one 'owned' by the landlord. There is no evidence adduced by the appellants to show that in M.T. Cloth market shops are also situated on first floor of buildings and attract the same business as the shops on ground floor do. The High Court and the R.C.A. have held none of the premises pointed out by the tenant-appellants such alternate accommodation as may defeat the respondents' claim. We find no reason to take a different view. Between the years 1987 and 1989 late Krishna Das, the then sole owner of the building, had sold three shops but that was an event which had taken place in the life- time of late Krishna Das and cannot have relevance for denying the claim of the respondent-landlords filed in the year 1995. Appeal dismissed. - C.A. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Civil Court by filing suits for eviction under Section 12 of the Act; and secondly, whether the landlords have succeeded in making out case of bona fide requirement of the suit premises within the meaning of clause (b) of Section 23-A of the Act. M.P. Accommodation Control Act, 1961 is a legislation providing for regulation and control of letting and rent of accommodations and generally to regulate the control of eviction of tenants from accommodations and for other matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It also provides for expeditious trial of eviction cases on ground of bona fide requirement of certain categories of landlords. Section 12 of the Act, which opens with a non-obstante clause, provides for no suit against a tenant for his eviction from any accommodation being filed in any Civil Court except on one or more of the grounds enumerated therein. Thus the rights, obligations and protection of the tenants in the matter of eviction from accommodations are governed principally by Section 12 of the Act and suit against tenant seeking eviction can be filed only in Civil Court. The procedure applicable and the remedy of appeal and revision are those as enumerated in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dential accommodation of his own his occupation in the city or town concerned; (f) that the accommodation let for non-residential purposes is required bona-fide by the landlord for the purpose of continuing or starting his business or that any of his major sons or unmarried daughters if he is the owner thereof or of any person for whose benefit the accommodation is held and that the landlord or such person has no other reasonably suitably non-residential accommodation of his own in his occupation in the city or town concerned. The above said provision needs to be read in juxtaposition with Section 23-A of the Act placed in Chapter III-A of the Act which reads as under: "23-A. Special provision for eviction of tenant on ground of bona fide requirement.___ Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force or contract to the contrary, a landlord may submit an application, signed and verified in a manner provided in rules 14 and 15 of Order VI of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (V of 1908) as if it were a plaint to the Rent Controlling Authority on one or more of the following grounds for an order directing the tena ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hapter III-A only. Section 11-A of the Act provides that the provisions of Chapter III so far as they relate to matter specially provided in Chapter III-A shall not apply to the landlord defined in Section 23-J. Section 45 of the Act also provides that as to the matters which the Rent Controlling Authority is empowered by or under the Act to decide are not entertainable by Civil Court. The effect of these provisions is that a landlord as defined in Section 23-J of the Act cannot have recourse to the forum of Civil Court. Broadly speaking, the main features of Chapter III-A are that it provides a summary procedure for the hearing of applications on the lines similar to those contained in Order 37 of the CPC. The tenant cannot contest the prayer for eviction from accommodation unless leave to defend is sought for by moving an application within the prescribed period of time and allowed. Default in appearance or refusal of leave results in the statement made by the landlord in the application for eviction being deemed to have been admitted by the tenant obliging the Rent Controlling Authority to pass an order of eviction. Where leave is granted to the tenant to contest the applicati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... order to provide benefit of the special procedure only to some of them constituting a distinct class was upheld as permissible and reasonable classification. Both these decisions were relied on by the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in B. Johnson's case (supra). To the same effect is a later Full Bench decision of Madhya Pradesh High Court in Kunjulal Yadu Vs. Parasram Sharma, 2000 (II) MPJR 123. So much observation would suffice for the purpose of the present case as in our opinion, the present one is not a fit case, on the basis of the pleadings and material available, to examine the question of constitutional validity of Chapter III-A of the Act. The principal issue is that out of three co-landlords, the respondents herein, one is a widow falling within the definition of 'landlord' as defined in Section 23-J of the Act and hence entitled to have recourse to the provisions of Chapter III-A while other two co- landlords do not fall within the definition of 'landlord' in Section 23- J. Though the requirement pleaded is of all the landlords, i.e. the widow as also the other two co-landlords, it is only the widow who can take advantage of the special procedure fo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1990 MP 191. The question posed before the Full Bench was : "Whether out of several landlords of an accommodation including a widow, an application for eviction of the tenant by the widow alone, on the ground of her own bona fide need or joint need of herself and that of her married sons and their children, would be competent before the Rent Controlling Authority under Section 23-A(a) read with Section 23-J(iii) of the Act". The premises in question were let out by the late husband of the landlady and after his death the widow as well as her children succeeded to the tenanted premises by inheritance and therefore the widow and her children all became co-owners and joint landlords thereof. The application for eviction was filed by the widow alone. It was urged that the widow alone cannot maintain an application under Section 23-A of the Act either for her own bona fide need or for the joint need of herself and her married sons who are also joint landlords but do not belong to the special class envisaged in Section 23-J of the Act and have not joined the widow in making application for eviction. The Full Bench held that application filed by the widow alone as one of the landlords was ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s no other reasonably suitable non-residential accommodation of his own in his occupation in the city or town concerned. It is well settled by at least three decisions of this Court, namely, Sri Ram Pasricha Vs. Jagannath and Ors. (1976) 4 SCC 184, Kanta Goel Vs. B.P. Pathan and Ors.- (1977) 2 SCC 814 and Pal Singh Vs. Sunder Singh (dead) by Lrs. and Ors. (1989) 1 SCC 444 that one of the co-owners can alone and in his own right file a suit for ejectment of tenant and it is no defence open to tenant to question the maintainability of the suit on the ground that other co-owners were not joined as parties to the suit. When the property forming subject matter of eviction proceedings is owned by several owners, every co- owner owns every part and every bit of the joint property along with others and it cannot be said that he is only a part owner or a fractional owner of the property so long as the property has not been partitioned. He can alone maintain a suit for eviction of tenant without joining the other co-owners if such other co-owners do not object. In Shri Ram Pasricha's case (supra) reliance was placed by the tenant on the English rule that if two or more landlords institute ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s plaintiff or as co-applicant because the case pleaded in the plaint would squarely fall within the ambit of clause (f) sub-Section (1) of Section 12 of the Act. Here we may divert a little and refer to a decision of this Court in Messrs. Importers and Manufacturers Ltd. Vs. Pheroze Framroze Taraporewala and Ors. AIR 1953 SC 73. The local law (applicable to Bombay) provided for a suit between landlord and tenant being filed in the Small Causes Court. In the suit filed by the landlord against the tenant, the sub-tenant was also impleaded as a party. The defendant objected to the maintainability of the suit before the Small Causes Court submitting that the suit being not one between landlord and tenant alone it would not be within the competence of the Small Causes Court to try the same. This Court held that a sub-tenant was a proper party in a suit for ejectment between landlord and tenant. The joinder of such a proper party cannot alter the character of the suit and does not make the suit any the less a suit between the landlord and the tenant; to hold otherwise will be to encourage multiplicity of the suits which will result in no end of inconvenience and confusion. It is clear ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erence to, or deriving aid from, certain legal maxims will be useful. Ubi jus ibi remedium there is no wrong without a remedy. Where there is a right there is a forum for its enforcement. According to Broom's Legal Maxims (Tenth Edition, pp.118-119), the maxim has been considered so valuable that it led to the invention of the form of action called an action on the case. Where no precedent of a writ can be produced, the clerks in Chancery shall agree in forming a new one. The principle adopted by courts of law accordingly is, that the novelty of the particular complaint alleged in an action on the case is no objection, provided that an injury cognizable by law be shown to have been inflicted on the plaintiff, in which case, although there be no precedent, the common law will judge according to the law of nature and the public good. If a man has a right, he must, "have a means to vindicate and maintain it, and a remedy if he is injured in the exercise and enjoyment of it, and, indeed, it is vain thing to imagine a right without a remedy, for want of right and want of remedy are reciprocal". As held in Smt. Ganga Bai Vs. Vijay Kumar and Ors. (1974) 2 SCC 393 there is an inherent ri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re us, the cause of action is one requirement of a major son, who himself is a co-owner. It is capable of being construed in two ways, depending on from the point of view of which of the landlords we look at. From the point of view of the widow landlady and owner it is a case of the accommodation let for non-residential purpose required bona fide by the landlady for the purpose of continuing or staring the business of any of her major sons, within the meaning of Section 23-A(b) of the Act. From the point of view of the major son himself, who is also himself an owner, it is a case of the accommodation let for non-residential purpose required bona fide by the landlord for the purpose of continuing or starting his business as he is owner thereof, within the meaning of Section 12(1)(f) of the Act. In the former case the cause of action is triable by way of an application before R.C.A. In the latter case the cause of action is triable in a suit instituted in Civil Court. Any one of them may singally commence the proceedings without impleading the other or by impleading the other as a non-applicant or defendant in pro- forma capacity in which case the choice of forum would present no dif ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... jor sons, could not have initiated proceedings for eviction before the Rent Controlling Authority. We have carefully perused the two applications for eviction filed by the respondents. The bonafide requirement pleaded is of the widow landlady, the respondent no.1, who requires the suit premises for Govinda, respondent no.2 for starting his business and that of another son Hemant, the respondent no.3 for continuing the business which presently he is carrying on in rented premises. Respondents 2 and 3 being major sons of the widow respondent no.1, such requirement clearly falls also within the purview of Section 23-A (b) of the Act. The proceedings initiated before R.C.A. do not suffer from want of jurisdictional competence. So far as the challenge to proof of requirement is concerned it merits a summary dismissal. The Rent Controlling Authority and the High Court, both, have on a meticulous evaluation of evidence found the requirement proved. None of the landlords is possessed of any other suitable alternative accommodation of his or her own to satisfy the requirement found proved. A landlord cannot be compelled to carry on business in rented premises and the proved requirement ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... A shop on the first floor cannot attract the same number of customers and earn the same business as a shop situated on the ground floor would do. Moreover, there is no evidence adduced by the appellants to show that in M.T. Cloth market shops are also situated on first floor of buildings and attract the same business as the shops on ground floor do. The High Court and the R.C.A. have held none of the premises pointed out by the tenant-appellants such alternate accommodation as may defeat the respondents' claim. We find no reason to take a different view. Between the years 1987 and 1989 late Krishna Das, the then sole owner of the building, had sold three shops but that was an event which had taken place in the life- time of late Krishna Das and cannot have relevance for denying the claim of the respondent-landlords filed in the year 1995. For all the foregoing reasons we find the appeals devoid of any merit and liable to be dismissed. They are dismissed with costs. However, each of the appellants is allowed four months time for vacating the suit premises subject to each of them clearing all arrears of rent and filing usual undertaking, within a period of four weeks from today. - ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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