MODERN HOTEL GUDUR Vs. K RADHAKRISHNAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a tenant's appeal by special leave against the order of eviction from a commercial premises at Gudur in Andhra Pradesh. The Controller, the Appellate Authority and the High Court have concurrently found that the appellant was a wilful defaulter liable to be evicted.

(2.) Under document No. 1327 of 1969, a thirty-year lease with an annual stipulated rent was granted in favour of one Narayanan, a partner of the Hotel, for a term of 30 years beginning from 9th of Sept. 1961. For the first 15 years rent was stipulated at the rate of Rs. 150 per month and for the second span of 15 years rent was to be escalated to Rs. 200 per month, and the tenant undertook to pay the rent by the 9th of every succeeding month. The lease deed further stipulated:

(3.) Action for eviction was initiated on the plea that the tenant had failed to pay the rent for a certain subsequent period. Courts below debated the main - perhaps the only - contention as to whether the plea of payment which the tenant advanced had been established. On behalf of the landlord the account books of the Hotel were placed and the benefit of S. 34 of the Evidence Act was claimed. Lot of attention was bestowed in the Courts below on the question as to whether the oral evidence along with the presumption arising under S. 34 of the Evidence Act had not established the position that no payment and as claimed had been made. On the finding that payment had not been established, eviction was ordered.