Himachal Pradesh High Court: While deciding this revision petition filed by the tenant under Section 24(5) of the Himachal Pradesh Urban Rent Control Act, 1987 (‘Rent Act’), challenging the judgment passed by the Appellate Authority-II, Shimla (‘Appellate Authority’), whereby the order of the Rent Controller, Shimla, directed him to vacate the shop premises as the landlord’s bona fide requirement, was affirmed; a Single Judge Bench of Vivek Singh Thakur, J., dismissed the petition, observing that the landlord’s pension income could not be raised as a ground to counter landlord’s bona fide requirement of the shop for expanding his business and directed the tenant to vacate the premises by 31-10-2025.
Background:
The landlord had preferred a petition under Section 14(3)(b)(i) of the Rent Act, before the Rent Controller, on the ground of bona fide requirement, submitting that he ran a gifts and cosmetics business in a small shop adjoining the shop occupied by the tenant. His elder son was working in a private firm at Shimla, and the younger son was about to complete his 12th Class and was the only caretaker in the old age of the landlord and his wife. Since the shop was the only means of earning for the landlord and his family and it had gradually become difficult for him to maintain himself out of it, he wanted to settle down his younger son immediately after completion of his study by expanding his business. For the expansion, the landlord had to vacate the shop of the tenant, and therefore, he preferred an eviction petition after issuing a notice, directing the tenant to vacate the shop before 31-03-2012.
The tenant resisted the eviction petition alleging that the landlord had been harassing him and one night, for pressurizing the tenant to leave, a hole was made in the lentil of the tenant whereupon the tenant filed a civil suit restraining the landlord from such acts, whereas the landlord was estopped from filing the eviction petition due to his own acts. The tenant refuted the landlord’s claim that the rent of the premises was Rs 400 per month plus Municipal Corporation taxes, submitting that it was Rs 660 per month including the taxes. The tenant also contended that the premise was rented out to him in 1985 instead of 01-04-2006 and thus, the landlord had not approached the Court with clean hands. The tenant also submitted that he was a contractual tenant and was paying the rent regularly and thus he could not be forced to be evicted, and further that the landlord was not in need of premises for expanding his business as he was getting sufficient pension for his livelihood and was also having sufficient accommodation for such expansion.
On 25-06-2015, the Rent Controller, after analysing the evidence submitted by the parties, concluded that the landlord proved his bona fide requirement for business expansion to settle his younger son and accordingly directed the tenant to hand over the vacant possession of the shop to the landlord within a period of two months which was affirmed by the Appellate Authority vide order dated 02-04-2016.
The tenant filed the present revision petition contending that the landlord failed to establish the bona fide requirement. It was alleged that the landlord had the option of other shops rented out by him to people who were running businesses as a painter as well as an office of Public Relations etc. It also came on record during the examination of witnesses on behalf of the landlord that within 5 years prior to filing of petition for evicting the tenant, the landlord had rented out a shop to someone else. Therefore, it was contended that the petition preferred by landlord was liable to be dismissed on account of mis-appreciation, misreading and misconstruction of material-on-record by both the Courts below.
Analysis and Decision:
The Court referred to Rukmini Amma Saradamma v. Kallyani Sulochana, (1993) 1 SCC 499, and Rai Chand Jain v. Miss Chandra Kanta Khosla, (1991) 1 SCC 422, wherein it was held that the revisional jurisdiction conferred on the High Court, though widely worded, could not be converted into an appellate jurisdiction.
The Court relied on Hindustan Petroleum Corpn. Ltd. v. Dilbahar Singh, (2014) 9 SCC 78, wherein the Supreme Court observed that “the High Court must not invoke the revisional jurisdiction as the cloak of an appeal in disguise. Revision did not lie under the provisions to bring the orders of the Trial Court/Rent Controller and Appellate Court/Appellate Authority for re-hearing of the issues raised in the original proceedings”. It was further observed that “the Rent Control Acts did not entitle the High Court to interfere with the findings of fact recorded by the First Appellate Court/First Appellate Authority because on re-appreciation of the evidence, its view was different from the Court/Authority below”.
The Court opined that it is a settled law that landlord has a right to put his property for better use and to obtain a higher income. He has a right to choose the place for the business which is most suitable to him and the Court or tenants have no concern to dictate to him as to how and in what manner he should expand his business.
The Court observed that pleadings without evidence as well as evidence without pleadings could not be used by a party for its advantage and therefore, a plea raised at the time of hearing of present revision petition that the landlord had failed to establish the mandatory requirement that he had not vacated any premises within 5 years of filing of petition, was not sustainable. The Court noted that the tenant also failed to establish that any other shop in similar location was available for landlord or was vacated or rented out by the landlord to someone else. The eviction petition was filed in 2012, when his son was 19 years old and now, he was beyond 30 years, and the landlord was still waiting for eviction of shop to settle his son.
The Court also opined that the income from pension was not a perpetual income and after the death of the landlord, his family members including his younger son would not be entitled for any pension.
Consequently, the Court, while dismissing the petition, observed that no case was made out for interference by exercising the revisional jurisdiction to reverse the impugned order and judgment and directed the tenant to hand over the vacant possession of the shop to the landlord on or before 31-10-2025.
[Tulsi Ram v. Mustaq Qureshi, 2025 SCC OnLine HP 4527, decided on 02-09-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioner: Ashok Sood, Sr. Advocate with Rajat, Advocate vice Abhishek Banta, Advocate.
For the Respondent: Imran Khan, Advocate.