Nikhil Nath Bhattacharjee, J. - (1.)The subject matter of this writ application filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India is termination of a tenancy and dispossession in respect of a one-bed room flat No. A-7, L.I.G. Housing Estate, at 30A, Ram Krishna Samadhi Road, Beliaghata, Calcutta.
(2.)The Petitioner's case is that she is a tenant in the said Housing Estate since 1965 having been allotted with the flat by the Respondent No. 1, State of West Bengal. It has been stated that the Respondent No. 3, the Estate Manager, has been appointed and designated by the Respondent No. 1 to supervise the administration of the said Housing Estate. It is her case that she is in continued possession of the said flat by paying monthly rent since the allotment until Aug. 12, 1993 when the Respondent No. 3 forcibly dispossessed her taking advantage of her temporary absence from the said flat, without notice. The manner of effecting dispossession as alleged in the writ petition is that as she had been taken out by her son to a local doctor for her treatment, the Respondent No. 3 put a padlock on her padlock on the outer door of the said flat with a notice hung up on the said door being Annexure 'D' to the writ application. It appears from the said Annexure that her tenancy was declared terminated with immediate effect on the ground of non-occupation under Sec. 3(2)(i) of the West Bengal Government Premises (Tenancy Regulation) Act, 1976. It has been stated that the writ Petitioner is a widow aged about 83 years living in the said flat with her son continuously since 1965 and that if she goes out she does so only for temporary periods and that all her furniture, utensils, bedding and other goods of daily use are kept in the said premises. It is her case that after returning home and finding the padlock and the notice she met the Respondent No. 3, the Estate Manager and submitted repeated representations including an affidavit but to no avail. Even a joint representation submitted by as many as 37 co-tenants to the Estate Manager intimating that she had been living in this flat for a long time past as a regular tenant and that the publicity that was sought to be given that the flat was lying unoccupied was nothing but a myth, could not after the position. The Estate Manager was unmoved and refused to deliver back possession of the flat to her.
(3.)The writ Petitioner has therefore prayed for issuance of a writ of Mandamus commanding the Respondents to deliver back to her possession of the said Flat together with all her belongings lying therein and to restore water connection for her use in the said flat forthwith.
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