PUSHPA DEVI BHAGAT Vs. RAJINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) Respondents 1 & 2 are the landlords of the suit property (front portion of residential premises no. C-25, Friends Colony, New Delhi). Respondents 1 & 2 and their father Late Brig. S. Rameshwar let out the suit property with the fittings and fixtures to M/s Usha Fisheries Agriculture and Dairy Farm, a partnership firm (third respondent herein) for a period of three years under a registered lease deed dated 6.6.1979, the purpose being the residential use of a partner of the firm. Pushpa Devi (mother of the appellant) and respondents 4, 5 & 6 were its partners. The suit property was being used by Pushpa Devi for her residential use. The tenancy was continued after the lease term of three years.

(3.) The landlords (Respondents 1 & 2 and their father) terminated the said tenancy as at the end of 31.3.1989 by notice dated 9.2.1989 and filed a suit against the firm and Pushpa Devi in the court of the District Judge, Delhi on 10.4.1989 for recovery of the possession of the suit property. It was originally numbered as RC Suit No. 265 of 1989 and later, transferred to the court of the Sub-Judge, New Delhi (later, Civil Judge, Delhi) and renumbered as Suit No. 52 of 1993. Pushpa Devi, second defendant, resisted the suit inter alia on the ground that the first defendant firm had been dissolved and as a consequence all its partners including herself became the co-tenants and the suit was not maintainable without impleading the other partners. Subsequently, M.L. Wadhwa, S. K. Mittal and Badan Singh (the other three partners of the firm), were impleaded as defendants 3 to 5. During the pendency of the suit, the first plaintiff S. Rameshwar died, and the suit was continued by showing his two sons (original plaintiffs 2 & 3) as plaintiffs 1 & 2. The fifth defendant also died and his son Chaman Lal Gahlot was brought on record in his place as the fifth defendant.