TMI Blog1982 (8) TMI 221X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f Ali Road, New Delhi. Besides his other business activities, the petitioner is looking after the Delhi Office. The son of the petitioner is looking after the Delhi Office. The son of the petitioner is at present getting education at the Punjab University at Chandigarh, doing Master of Business Administration Course. This is the final year of the son and he has also to live at Delhi to look after the Delhi Office and has also to settle in Delhi. Neither the petitioner nor any member of his family has got any other suitable house in Delhi, excepting the premises in dispute, where the petitioner and his family can live. The petitioner is a heart patient and on account of lack of medical facilities at Muzaffarnagar, has to come to Delhi very frequently for consultation and treatment. The Doctor at Muzaffarnagar has advised the petitioner to shift to Delhi as the medical treatment available at Muzaffarnagar for a heart patient is grossly inadequate. There is no 'Intensive Care Unit' in the Civil Hospital at Muzaffarnagar, which can be availed of in the event of an emergency. The daughter of the petitioner has been married recently and she with her husband are also visiting Delh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he premises for the residence and personal use of Directors and/or their relatives and for the purposes of the Company. (6) It was also averred that since the inception of the tenancy, business of the petitioner-company or its allied concerns was being carried on to the knowledge of the respondent-landlord who had in his notice mentioned misuse and had also reserved his right in the eviction petition to take separate proceedings fur misuser. (7) Learned Rent Controller felt that the solitary question which-calls for determination and decision of the application for leave to contest turns on the interpretation of the aforesaid clause (5). (8) Learned Rent Controller while dealing with the aforesaid clause observed as under :- ACCORDING to the counsel for the respondent, the meaning of the words turn the purpose of the Company' obviously is that for putting the premises for commercial use of the company. As is apparent from the above wordings, in the clause itself, the main and dominant purpose was the use of the premises for the residence and personal use of directors and/or their relatives. Had there been an intention to give the premises for commercial pu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Rent Controller, Delhi wrote a letter to the High Court of Delhi and the High Court vide its reply dated 3/4th June, 1980 wrote back to the Rent Controller, Delhi through the District Judge as under: - Iam directed to refer to your letter No. 1830/Vacation, Gas, dated 20-5-80 on the above subject and to say that Hon'ble the Chief Justice and Judges of this Court have been pleased to order that the following Addl. Rent Controllers may be detained during the summer vacation 1980 for the period noted against each for attending urgent matters relating to cases of Delhi Rent Control Act. Shri Shiv Charan from 2-6-80 to 9-6-80. Shri A.K. Shrivastava from 10-6-80 to 23-6-80. Shri Brijesh Kumar from 24-6-80 to 29-6-80. Their Lordships have been further pleased to order that the Rent Controller be given direction for passing an order authorising Addl. Rent Controllers to Act as Rent Controller Delhi during the period as required u/s. 35(2) of the Delhi Rent Control Act and giving direction to deal with the specific matters. I am to add that the above judicial officers might be allowed to avail of compensatory leave during the year 1980 for the minimum of day they would actually wo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t, 1897 (Act No. 10 of 1897) would be applicable or not to the Rent Controller or the Additional Rent Controllers appointed under the Delhi Rent Control Act. Section 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 provides as under :- 10(1)Where, by any Central Act or Regulation made after the commencement of this Act, any act or proceeding is directed or allowed to be done or taken in any Court or office on a certain day or within a prescribed period, then if the Court or office is closed on that day or the last day of the prescribed period, the act or proceeding shall be considered as done or taken in due time if it is done or taken on the next day afterwards on which the court or office is open : Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any act or proceeding to which the Indian Limitation Act, 1877, applies. (2) This section applies also to all Central Acts and Regulations made on or after the fourteenth day of January, 1887. (13) There can be no doubt that the Act is Central Act. But the question is, whether the Controller or the Additional Rent Controllers appointed under the Act are a court or an office within the meaning of Section 10(1) of the General Clauses Act. It a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act. I would, therefore, hold that the Controller and Additional Rent Controllers within the meaning of Section 10 of the General Clauses Act. (15) The Court of Controller and Addl. Rent Controllers were closed during the period 2-6.80 to 29-6-80 and the Addl. Rent Controllers were only authorised to do certain specified urgent matters and application for leave to appear and contest in eviction petition was not a matter which they were authorised to entertain during this period. Thus, the application could be filed on the re-opening day. It was so filed in this case on the opening day. Learned Rent Controller was thus) in error for holding that the application was barred by time. I would, thus, hold that the petition for leave to appear and contest the eviction petition was within time. On merits of the question, whether the leave to appear and contest should have been granted, I had 60 already extracted the reasoning of the learned Rent Controller in para 4 of his judgment declining the leave. (16) The view taken by the learned Rent Controller was again stressed before me by Dr. Singhvi, learned counsel for the respondent/landlord. He inter alia submitted that the property ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ence and personal use of the Directors and their relatives . (20) On the other hand the contention of Mr. B.R.L. Ayangar, learned counsel for the petitioner/tenant was that first part of this clause 5 talks about the user of the premises for residence whereas the later part, namely, ''for the purpose of Company is very wide and included user for any purpose of the Company and not necessarily for residence only. It will be noticed that in the present case there are no clauses like clauses 8, 10 and 11 as noticed in the case of M/s Mehra Mehra decided by Kirpal,J. we are thus, left only with this clause 5. It is also clear that when there is a written agreement regarding purpose of letting, a reference to situation or locality or how the premises have been built cannot normally be looked into. Here the letting purpose has been specifically mentioned. Again in the present case, there are no clauses like clauses 8, 10 and 11 extracted earlier as noticed by Kirpal, J. in the case of M/s Mehra Mehra. (21) The clause 5 is such that it is susceptible to the view which is being propounded on behalf of the tenant. Therefore, on this short ground alone, leave to defend should h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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