SEWA RAM Vs. SUNDER RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is directed against the order of the Rent Controller dated 2nd September, 1987, whereby the application for amendment of the ejectment petition was dismissed.

(2.) The ejectment application was filed on 25th July, 1984. When the case was ripe for arguments, application seeking amendment of the petition was filed by the landlord/petitioner on 1st September, 1987, with the prayer on the ground that "the tenant had converted the verandah of the shop in dispute into a room by raising the walls in it and has affixed the door in front of the verandah and as such had impaired the value and utility of the shop in dispute", be allowed to be added. This application was contested by the tenant. The learned Rent Controller found that the land lord had already taken this ground when he stated that the tenant has made material alterations in the shop in dispute by closing the back door, and thus impaired the value and utility of the building. According to the learned Rent Controller the landlord should have taken this plea at that time, and that the present application had been filed with a view to making the evidence adduced by him earlier admissible. It was, therefore, held that the application made by the landlord was mala fide.

(3.) Learned counsel for the respondent/tenant submitted that the landlord had filed such an application earlier too, which was, however, dismissed as withdrawn on 20th October, 1987. Thus, according to the learned counsel, the Rent Controller had rightly disallowed the amendment sought by the petitioner.