MILAP CHAND Vs. DWARKA DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Milap Chand is a defendant in a suit filed by Dwarka Das, opposite party, in the Court of Munsif East, Jaipur City. Dwarka Das had taken a house on rent from the applicant by a rent detd, and had agreed to pay Rs. 60/-per month as rent. In November, 1952, Dwarka Das filed a suit under Section 6, Rajasthan Premises (Control of Bent and Eviction) Act, 1950, (hereinafter called the impugned Act) for fixation of standard rent. The suit was resisted by the applicant, and one of the main grounds was that the impugned Act was void for various reasons. Issues were framed by the Munsif, and the suit is still pending in that Court. An application was made to this Court under Article 228 praying that as the suit involved a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution, the determination of which was necessary for its disposal, this Court might either dispose of the suit itself, or determine the said question of law and return the case to the Court concerned with a copy of its judgment on such question. This application was allowed, and the matter is now before us for determining the question of law, namely whether certain provisions of the impugned Act are void under the Constitution.

(2.) Learned counsel for the applicant has attacked the validity of the impugned Act before us on the following three grounds:

(3.) Though the State was not a party to the suit in the Munsif's Court, notice was issued by us to the Advocate General, as the case involved the validity or otherwise of a piece of legislation. We have heard the learned Advocate General also, and his contention is that there is no force in any of the three points urged on behalf of the applicant, and that the law in question did not require the sanction of the President as it was within the competence of the State Legislature, and it is not discriminatory; nor was its extension after November, 1952, invalid.