- (1.) The petition for eviction at the instance of a person claiming to be the landlord came to be dismissed in both the courts below. The petitioner before this Court placed his contention regarding his entitlement to collect the rent through a sale deed from the original landlord Dalip Singh in his favour on 1.4.1968. The tenant has denied the jural relationship and contended that he had never paid the rent to the petitioner and the alleged default that the petitioner was pleading for cannot be taken as affording a ground for eviction. The tenant pleaded that he was a tenant only under the petitioner's mother Khazani Devi who claimed that after the alleged sale by Dallip Singh in favour of his son, there had been a family settlement in which the petitioner himself was a party. Khazani Devi had died and her daughter power of attorney was examined as a witness.
(2.) In all cases relating to rent control matters where a petition for eviction is sought, the pre-eminent feature is to establish the jural relationship of landlord and tenant. If the landlord was claiming to be the owner and placed no more than his claim to ownership as establishing his status as a landlord, the rent controller cannot enter into an adjudication regarding ownership. If the tenant was contending that he was paying the rent only to the petitioner's mother Khazani Devi and stated that he was doing so under the claim by her through a family settlement, the rent controller was expected to see if apart from the rival claims to title by the petitioner and her mother or persons claiming through the mother, there was any form of relationship as landlord and tenant. The Court could not have entered into an adjudication regarding title. In such a situation best course would be always to refer the parties to an adjudication regarding title and allow for such a contention to prevail in another alternative forum.
(3.) The petitioner is aggrieved by the decision of the rent controller and the appellate authority who have held that the petitioner did not have title to the property and only the petitioner's mother was the owner of the property under the family settlement, I would find such a finding to be inappropriate at the instance of the rent controller or the appellate authority exercising the jurisdiction under the Act. I vacate the finding regarding ownership.;