- (1.) This revision has been filed against the concurrent orders of the Courts below ordering the eviction of the petitioner from the premises in dispute.
(2.) The respondents had filed the petition for eviction on the ground of personal necessity. The Rent Controller allowed the petition and the petitioner filed an appeal. In the appeal the petitioner did not challenge the finding of bonafide necessity but only took up the plea that the respondent was himself a tenant and had sublet the premises to him without the written consent of the real owner and therefore there was no relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties. At one stage the matter was referred to a Larger Bench for an authoritative pronouncement on the issue whether a tenant who sublets any premises without the written consent can claim himself to be a landlord of the sub-tenant.
(3.) The Hon'ble Division Bench in the matter of Paramjit Singh Walia Vs. Jagdish Mittar etc. upheld the decision in Kashmiri Lal and another Vs. Madan Lal, 1979 81 PunLR 738 and also approved the decision in Pishori Lal Vs. Joginder Singh, 1992 2 RCR(Rent) 506 by order and judgment dated 19.09.2015 and held as follows :- "10. The reference is, therefore, answered as follows:- (i) A tenant who sublets any building or rented land without the written consent of the landlord is not a landlord within the meaning of that term in Section 2(c); (ii) The words in Section 2(c) "in the manner hereinafter provided" refer to a tenant, who sublets a building or rented land with the written consent of the landlord; (iii) Where a tenant sublets any building or rented land without the written consent of the landlord, the person to whom he sublets the building or rented land does not fall within the meaning of the term "tenant" in Section 2(h); (iv) Accordingly, where a tenant, who sublets any building or rented land without the written consent of the landlord, cannot maintain an action for eviction under Section 13. The office shall place the matter before the learned single Judge as per roster for disposal thereof on merits.";