- (1.) This is a revision petition from the order, dated August 28, 1957 of the First Class Subordinate Judge of Delhi and it arises in these circumstances.
(2.) The ejectment suit, out of which this revision petition has arisen, was instituted by plaintiff Uma Kumari as the landlord for ejectment of Dr. Savitri Gupta as tenant of the premises. The tenancy is not denied. The eviction was sought on grounds of sub-letting and damage to the premises. It is said that the plaintiff purchased the property on August 24, 1956, and three days later on August 27, 1956, she instituted the suit for ejectment against the defendant. During the pendency of the suit the plaintiff made an application on May 15, 1957 to the trial Court under section 13 (5) of the Delhi and Ajmer Rent Control Act, 1952 (Act No. XXXVIII of 1952) stating that considerable amount of rent was due from the defendant and then praying that the defendant be directed to deposit rent in Court month by month at the agreed rate of Rs. 55/- per mensum till the decision of the suit. There is some dispute whether, when notice of this application was served on the defendant, a copy of this application accompanied the notice or not, but I do not think it is necessary to go into this matter in this revision petition. The case came before the learned trial Judge on June 18, 1957, and on that date the parties and their counsel were present in the Court. The learned trial Judge proceeded to pass the following order on the application of the plaintiff. "The defendant is ordered to deposit the arrears of rent and future rent according to law."
(3.) The defendant not having made the deposit of the rent in arrears, the learned trial Judge by his order of August 28, 1957, proceeded to strike out his defence. In the same order the learned trial Judge has also considered the review application of the defendant against his previous order of June 18, 1957, as reproduced above. The order of June 18, 1957, as is apparent, was passed under sub-section (5) of section 13 of Act No. XXXVIII of 1952. It is necessary to refer to this sub-section and it reads :- "Section 13. (5) If the tenant contests the suit as regards the claim for ejectment, the plaintiff landlord may make an application at any stage of the suit for an order on the tenant-defendant to deposit month by month rent at a rate at which it was last paid and also the arrears of rent, if any, and the court, after giving an opportunity to the parties to be heard, may make an order for the deposit of rent at such rate month by month as it thinks fit and the arrears of rent, if any, and on the failure of the tenant to deposit the arrears of rent within fifteen days of the date of the order or to deposit the rent at such rate for any month by the 15th of the next following month, the court shall order the defence against ejectment to be struck out and the tenant to be placed in the same position as if he had not defended the claim to ejectment; and the landlord may withdraw the amount of money in deposit without prejudice to his claim to any decree or order for recovery of possession of the premises.";