RAVAL AND CO Vs. K G RAMACHANDRAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are the tenants of a property bearing door Nos. 16 and 17 of the Poonamallee High Road in the city of Madras. They became tenants of this building in May 1929 when the property was with one of the predecessors in title of the present landlords, who are the respondents in these appeals. Though the appellants became tenants in 1929 a registered lease deed came into existence only in 1935 under which the lease was to run upto 1-5-1969. The lessee was entitled to renewal on the same terms and conditions for another period of fifteen years. The monthly rent agreed upon was Rs.225/- and a sum of Rs.235/- was payable as an annual contribution towards repairs and Rs.220/- towards public charges and taxes. In 1949 the parties mutually agreed that the tenants were to pay a 25 per cent increase in rent and also certain other amounts. The present landlords purchased the property in 1962 and soon after filed an application under Section 4 of the Madras (Now Tamil Nadu) Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1960 for fixation of fair rent. Thereupon the tenants filed Writ Petition No. 1124 of 1963 seeking to restrain the landlords from proceeding with that petition. The learned single Judge who heard the petition felt that in view of a long series of decisions of Madras High Court under the various Rent Control Acts in force in Madras that they applied also to contractual tenancies in the matter of payment of rent as well as eviction, the matter should be considered by a Full Bench in view of the decisions of this Court in Rent Control cases from certain other States.

(2.) The Full Bench after an elaborate consideration came to the conclusion that the Act controls both contractual as well as statutory tenancies.

(3.) Before we go further into a discussion of the questions that arise it is necessary to look into certain relevant provisions of the Act.