A.N.Verma, J. - (1.) This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition is directed against concurrent orders passed by the courts below allowing an application filed by respondent No. 3 for release of the shop in dispute under Section 21 (1) (a) of the U. P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Rent, Letting & Eviction) Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as the Act).
(2.) Shortly stated, the relevant facts are these. The respondent No. 3, the landlord of the shop, filed an application under Section 21 (1) (a) of the aforesaid Act for the release of the shop in dispute on the ground that on the first floor of the building in dispute, the respondent was residing with his family. The respondent landlord was doing milk business prior to 1972, but left the same as it ceased to be profitable. The landlord was doing some business in the firm of his father-in-law in a village three miles away from the town where the shop in dispute is situate. The relations between the landlord and his father-in-law became strained. The landlord had no other shop or place to carry on business. The application was, therefore, moved on the ground that he bona fide needed the shop in dispute for carrying on Arhat business.
(3.) The application was opposed by the petitioners on the ground that the need of the landlord was not genuine at all. The landlord had let out a portion of the building on a monthly rental of Rs. 450/-. The family of the landlord was a small one and he had enough means to support his family. The tenants on the other hand have earned a goodwill in respect of the shop in dispute and they had no other place where they could conveniently shift their business.;