- (1.) This revision petition is directed against the order of the Rent Controller, Kaithal, dated December 3, 1985, passed on an application under Section 5 of the Haryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction Act, 1973, (hereinafter called the Act), whereby the fair rent fixed earlier was revised.
(2.) Admittedly, vide order dated February 27, 1982, fair rent was fixed of the demised premises at the rate of Rs. 535.50 per annum with effect from November 3, 1978. In that application, Rs. 350 per annum were fixed as the basic rent. Since a period of five years had elapsed thereto, the landlord filed the application under Section 5 of the Act on March 24, 1984. Section 5 of the Act reads as follows : "Revision in fair rent in certain cases : (1) When the fair rent of a building or rented land has been fixed under Section 4, no further increase or decrease in such fair rent shall be permissible for a period of five years : Provided that an increase may be allowed in cases where any addition, improvement or alteration has been carried out at the expense of the landlord, and in the building or rented land which is in occupation of the tenant then at the request of the tenant : Provided further that the decrease may be allowed in the cases where there is a decrease or diminution in the accommodation or amenities provided. (2) Any dispute between the landlord and tenant in regard to any increase or decrease under this section shall be decided by the Controller." The said application was resisted by the tenant-respondent inter alia on the plea that it was premature and was bad for non-compliance of the mandatory rules. The Rent Controller framed the following issues : 1. What is the basic rent ? 2. What should be fair rent ? As regards issue No. 1, the learned Rent Controller found that the basic rent was already fixed while deciding the previous application for fixation of fair rent and, therefore, this issue had become redundant. Under issue No. 2, it was held that the Wholesale All India Price Index determined by the Government of India uptill December 31, 1983, was to be taken into consideration under Section 4(3) of the Act, which provides guidelines for fixation of fair rent by the Rent Controller. According to the learned Rent Controller, if the base year 1971 is taken into account, then All India Wholesale Price Index number as determined by the Government was 185 in the year 1978 and the same was 307 in the year 1983. Therefore, there was an increase of 122 in the same. This increase was on 185 and on calculation, it came to 66 per cent. The increase had been allowed at the rate of 25 per cent and, therefore, 25 per cent of 66 per cent came to 16.5 per cent. Thus calculated, the increase on Rs. 535.50, i.e., the fair rent already fixed, came to Rs. 88.35. Accordingly, the fair rent was revised and fixed at the rate of Rs. 623.85 per annum from the date of the filing of the application, i.e. March 24, 1984. Dissatisfied with the same, the landlord has filed this revision petition in this court as no appeal is provided under the Act against such an order.
(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that under the Act, no procedure has been provided for revising the fair rent as contemplated under Section 5 of the Act. Therefore, for that purpose, the Rent Controller is to fall back upon the provisions of Section 4 of the Act. According to the learned counsel, before the fair rent could be revised the basic rent was to be fixed as provided under Section 4 and then an increase of 25 per cent was to be allowed thereon.;