- (1.) An interesting question regarding court-fee, payable on a memorandum of appeal filed against an order dismissing an application for fixation of rent, has been raised in this application.
(2.) Regard being had to the public importance of the question and also its importance from the point of view of Government revenue, I directed that the notice of the Rule be given to the Government Pleader, Mr. N.C. Chakravartty. The learned Government Pleader, appeared in this case and assisted me in deciding the question raised.
(3.) The Petitioner is a tenant in respect of a portion of premises No. 169A, Upper Circular Road, Calcutta. The rent which was being last paid was at the rate of Rs. 60 per month. On August 27, 1956, the tenant Petitioner filed an application before the Rent Controller, Calcutta, for fixation of fair rent. The material portion of the said petition is quoted below: 2. That the tenancy of the applicant tenant commenced since December, 1939, at the rental of Rs. 47 per month. The said rent was reduced to Rs. 25 per month in December, 1941; subsequently the rent was raised to Rs. 47 per month and since January, 1951, it has been raised to Rs. 60 per month which rent has been continued at the present time. 3. That the said rent of Rs. 60 is above the standard rent under Section 5 of the Act, West Bengal Act 18 of 1956, by which the privileges and remedies under West Bengal Act, 1950, are saved and is therefore unfair and unreasonable. The applicant tenant therefore prays for fixation of fair rent with retrospective effect and also prays for refund of the excess rent realised by the landlords from he tenant and for other reliefs as the court may think proper and fit.;