Shelat, J. - (1.) This appeal by Special leave is directed against the judgment and decree passed by the High Court at Allahabad in Second Appeal No. 930 of 1959.
(2.) The questions arise in this appeal:(1) with regard to interpretation of S. 3(1)(c) of the U. P. (Temporary) Control of Rent and Eviction Act, III of 1947 and (2) whether the alterations carried out by the respondent-tenant were alterations which materially altered the accommodation within the meaning of the said Cl. (c).
(3.) The appellants are the owners of a building situate on Dashaswamedh Road in Varanasi, the ground floor of which consisted of two shops separated by a partition wall and an arch in between. The respondent was the tenant of one of these two shops. The other shop, adjacent to the respondent shop, had been let out to one Banarsidas Lohar. The said Banarsidas vacated the shop and thereupon with the necessary sanction of the Rent Control Officer it was let out to the respondent as from July 24, 1954. On July 21, 1954 the respondent executed a rent note by which he inter alia agreed that he would not have any right to make any alterations, additions, or "Tor phor of any sort' in the said shop. The respondent took possession of the said shop thus becoming a tenant of both the shops. On August 8, 1954, the appellants at the request of the respondent removed the said partition wall and replaced the said arch by iron girders enabling the respondent to have a compact and commodious unit. There is no dispute that about the middle of October 1954 the respondent started making alterations in the said shop without the consent of the appellants. Thereupon the appellants first by a telegram and then by letters called upon the respondent to refrain from making the said alterations as such alterations were contrary to the express covenant contained in the said rent note. Ultimately by a notice, dated February 22, 1955 they terminated the said tenancy and called upon the respondent to hand over quiet and vacant possession. On the respondent failing to do so the appellants filed a suit for ejectment and other incidental reliefs claiming that as the said alterations were material alterations they were entitled to file the suit for eviction without obtaining therefor the permissions of the District Magistrate as required by S. 3 (1) of the said Act. The relevant part of .S. .3 (1) reads as under:- "Subject to any order passed under sub-s.(3) no suit shall, without the permission of the District Magistrate be filed in any Civil Court against a tenant for his eviction from any accommodation, except on one or more of the following grounds.... * * * * (c) That the tenant has, without the permission in writing of the landlord, made or permitted to be made any such construction as, in the opinion of the Court, has materially altered the accommodation or is likely substantially to diminish its value." Both the Trial Judge and in appeal against his judgment and decree the First Additional Civil Judge, Varanasi, concurrently found that the respondent had carried out alterations, that he did so without obtaining the consent of the appellants and that the alterations consisted of lowering of the floor level of the shop by about 11/2 ft. by excavating earth therefrom and putting up a new floor, of lowering correspondingly the front door which entailed cutting and removal of the plinthband on which the door rested, of lowering likewise the level of the staircase in the shop and putting up new steps thereto and lastly of lowering the height of the Chabutra outside the shop so as to correspond it to the level of the new ground floor of the shop. Both the Courts found that these alterations were material alterations of the accommodation within the meaning of S. 3 (l) (c) and held that the appellants were entitled to file the suit without obtaining the permission of the District Magistrate and to a decree of eviction.;