- (1.) J. C. Gupta, J. Heard petitioners' counsel.
(2.) DESPITE service of notices by refusal neither respondent No. 2 nor respondent No.-3 who had applied for allotment have appeared before this Court nor have filed any counter-affidavit. By means of this writ petition the landlords have challenged the order dated 18-7-1986 passed by Rent Control and Eviction Officer declaring the premises in question vacant. It appears that the said premises No. 6/19 (A to D) situated at Subhash Road, Aligarh were got released in favour of the deceased- landlady Smt. Vimla Devi Sharma, predecessor-in-interest of the petitioner in the proceedings under Section 21 (l) (a) of U. P. Act No. 13 of 1972, It is also not in dispute that the said landlady obtained possession of the said premises for her personal use. It fur ther appears that respondents No. 2 and 3 made application for allotment alleging that the said premises was lying vacant. By the impugned order the R. C. and E. O. has declared the said premises vacant. It has been argued by the learned counsel for the petitioners that after when the premises had been released in favour of the landlady under the provisions of Section 21 (1) (a) of the Rent Control Act, the same could not be declared vacant without there being any finding that the said premises has been allowed by the landlady to be occupied by any person other than her family members. This argument of learned counsel carries weight. There is no finding of the Rent Control and Eviction Officer that any por tion of the premises in question had been allowed by the petitioners to be occupied by any third person or that the landlady has substantially removed her effects there from. No material was also placed on record to bring the case of vacancy within the ambit of any of the clauses of Section 12 (1) of the Act. The R. C. and E. O. thus committed a manifest error of law in declaring premises in question vacant. Ac cordingly the impugned order declaring vacancy is hereby quashed. For the reasons stated above, writ petition is allowed. Petition allowed. .;