High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCWP/19311/2014dismissed

Geetan Singn @ Geetal Singh And ORS. v. Financial Commissioner Revenue Punjab Chd. & ORS.

2023-05-01Mr. Justice Vikas Bahl23 pages

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)*5$ )*5$ %!5 "14. Duty of landowner to furnish receipt for rent received from tenant.(1) Every landowner shall give or cause to be given a valid receipt to the tenant in the form prescribed for the rent received by him or on his behalf.

(2) Any landowner who fails to give or cause to be given such receipt, shall on conviction be punishable with a fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.

[14A. Procedure for ejectment and recovery of arrears of rents etc. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other law for the time being in force, and subject to the provisions of section 9A, xxx xxx xxx (iii) (a) if a landlord refuses to accept rent from his tenant or demands rent in excess of what he is entitled to under this Act, or refuses to give a receipt, the tenant may in writing inform the Assistant Collector, Second Grade, having jurisdiction of the fact, (b) on receiving such application, the Assistant Collector shall by a written notice require the landlord to accept the rent payable in accordance with this Act, or to give a receipt, as the case may be, or both, within 60 days of the receipt of the notice." 1

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%!5 "That, as per the directions in the aforesaid order dated 10.4.2015, the Petitioners deposited the rent arrears upto Rabi, 2015, however, the Petitioners have not deposited any rent

thereafter to the Applicant/Respondent 5 and 6. The Petitioners have been in possession of the suit land without paying any rent to the land owners since April, 2015 till present." B % )+3+.3)9 )33).3.3

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% * ' # +@ [(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force no land owner shall be competent to eject a tenant except when such tenant (i) is a tenant on the area reserved under this Act or is a tenant of a small landowner [or] (ii) fails to pay rent regularly without sufficient cause [or] (iii) is in arrears of rent at the commencement of this Act [or] (iv) has failed, or fails , without sufficient cause, to cultivate the land comprised in his tenancy in the manner or to the extent customary in the locality in which the land is situate [or] (v) has used, uses the land comprised in his tenancy in a manner which has rendered, or renders it unfit for the purpose for which he holds it [or] (vi) has sublet the tenancy or a part thereof; provided that where only a part of the tenancy has been sublet, the tenant shall be liable to ejected only from such part [or] (vii) refuses to execute a Qabuliyat or a Patta, in the form prescribed, in respect of his tenancy on being called upon to do so by an Assistant Collector on an application made to him for this purpose by the land owner{and}

(viii) has the tenancy for a fixed term, supported by a registered agreement entered into by the landowner and the tenant, and such term has expired. Explanation For the purposes of clause (iii) a tenant shall be deemed to be in arrears of rent at the commencement of this Act, only if the payment of arrears is not made by the tenant within a period of two months from the date of notice of the execution or decree or order , directing him to pay such arrears of rent.] xxx xxx xxx ,/

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(2) On receipt of an application the Assistant Collector shall, after giving to the parties notice in writing and a reasonable opportunity to be heard, determine the dispute summarily, and shall keep a memorandum of evidence and a gist of his final order with brief reasons therefor. xxx xxx xxx ,C,0@ ('%# +)' 7%' # & + ' #% '6 %7 '' '

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#@Not with standing anything to the contrary contained in any other law for the time being in force, and subject to the provisions of section 9A. (i) a land owner desiring to eject a tenant under this Act shall apply in writing to the Assistant Collector First Grade having jurisdiction, who shall thereafter proceed as provided for in subsection (2) of subsection 10 of this Act, and the provisions of subsection (3) of the said section shall also apply in relation to such application, provided that the tenants rights to compensation and acquisition of occupancy rights, if any under the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887 ( XVI of 1887), shall not be affected" $ ' 9 %

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Th e only point that has been canvassed before us is as to whether or not the High Court was right in interpreting s.9 of the Act by holding that the term 'regularly' used in s.9(1) (ii) would not include a single default. While the Revenue courts had held that the mere fact that the tenants made a single default in payment for the rent for Kharif 1961 was sufficient to attract the penalty of ejectment envisaged by s. 9(1) (ii) of the Act, the High Court took the view that on a proper interpretation of the term 'regularly' it will appear that the legislature did not contemplate that ejectment should be ordered straightaway even if a single default, though unexplained, is committed by the tenant which interpretation would run against the avowed object of the legislation which was to advance and ameliorate the lot of the tenants.

The High Court had considered the matter at very great length and placed a very wide interpretation on the term 'regularly' so as not to include within its ambit one single default. It has also referred to a number of authorities and Dictionaries to show that the word 'regularly' does not mean absolute symmetry. Having gone through the reasons given by the High Court we are unable to agree with the view taken either by the single Judge or the Division Bench of the High Court. There can be no doubt that the Act is a piece of social legislation meant to ameliorate the lot of the tenants and to further the rights of the tenants by conferring on them the status of a permanent tenancy or the rights to purchase the land on payment of instalments.

At the same time, we cannot overlook the fact that the landlords within a very limited sphere have been assured protection in respect of the rights which they possess in the land and have been given the right to eject the tenants on specified grounds which are contained in the various sub-clauses of s. 9 of the Act. One such sub-clause is sub-clause (ii) which falls for interpretation in the instant case. Section 9(1) as also clauses (i) and (ii) may be extracted thus:- "9.

1. Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, no land-owner shall be competent to eject a tenant except when such tenant- (i) is a tenant on the area reserved under this Act or is a tenant of a small land-owner; (or) (ii) fails to pay rent regularly without sufficient cause; .. .. .." 5.

While interpreting the word 'regularly' the High Court seems to have overlooked two important circumstances. In the first place, the word 'regularly' has been used immediately after the phrase 'fails to pay rent' and is followed by the words 'without sufficient cause'. Secondly, there is nothing in the section to indicate that the legislature intended to exclude one single default. The High Court attempted to supply words to the section which are not there. In doing so it has failed to consider that if once the court was to lay down a particular line of demarcation by extending the connotation of the word 'regularly' to exclude one default, it is difficult to explain why the legislature contemplated only one default and not two or three for that matter.

In order to construe the plain language of s.9(1) (ii) which admits of no ambiguity, it may be necessary to look to the object and the purposes of the Act. In the case of Bhagirath Ram Chand v. State of Punjab & Ors. a full Bench of the Punjab & Haryana High Court held that the Preamble of the Act stated that it was intended to provide for the security of land tenure and other incidental matters. It is no doubt true that the main thrust of the provisions of the Act are directed towards preventing the landlords from ejecting their tenants except on the grounds mentioned in s.

9, but at the same time, it cannot be denied that the legislature undoubtedly provided some protection to the landlords by conferring on them a limited right to eject their tenants and within this limited sphere, the right was absolute and could not be curtailed by interpreting clause (ii) of s. 9(1) of the Act through a process of twisting the law and doing violence to the language of the section. To begin with, the word 'regular' is derived form the word 'regula' which means 'rule' and its first and legitimate signification, according to Webster, is 'conformable to a rule, or agreeable to an established rule, law, or principle, to a prescribed mode. In Words and Phrases (Vol. 36A, p.241) the word 'regular' has been defined as 'steady or uniform in course, practice or occurrence, etc.

, and implies conformity to a rule, standard, or pattern'. It is further stated in the said Book that 'regular' means steady or uniform in course, practice, or occurrence; not subject to unexplained or irrational variation.

word 'regular' means in a regular manner, methodically, in due order. Similarly, Webster's New World Dictionary defines 'regular' as 'consistent or habitual in action, not changing, uniform, conforming to a standard or to a generally accepted rule or mode of conduct: xxx xxx xxx 8.

On a consideration of the authorities mentioned above, it seems to us that the legislature clearly intended to use the word 'regularly' to mean payment of rent in a uniform and consistent manner without any breach or default. The legislature never contemplated that a single default could be condoned. This inference is fortified by the words "without sufficient cause". In other words, the legislature clearly provided that if the tenant had committed a default, whether one, two or more, the same could only be condoned if sufficient cause is shown and not otherwise. If, however, we accept the interpretation of the High Court, then the words "sufficient cause" becomes, absolutely redundant.

On an overall consideration of the matter, a correct interpretation of the plain language and the words and phrases used in clause (ii) of s.9(1) of the Act seems to us that the word 'regular' connotes a consistent course of conduct without any break or breach and the words 'regular payment of rent' mean that the rent should be paid punctually without any default or laxity. Although the Act is heavily loaded in favour of the rights of the tenants so as to confer on them several important benefits and privileges yet as the Act is confiscatory in nature, so far as the landlord is concerned it should be strictly construed within the limited sphere inasmuch as the landlord is conferred limited grounds on which ejectment is permissible under s.

9 of the Act which appears to be a safety valve for the limited rights that are left with the landlord under the Act. In order therefore to advance the object of the Act so as to assure the limited protection to the landlord, the language employed in the various clauses of s. 9 has to be construed so as to give real benefit to the landlord within the limited range that the section operates.

(1) there must be a failure on the part of the tenant to pay rent;

(2) such failure must be to pay rent regularly, that is to say, the rent should be paid punctually consistently without any break or breach;

(3) if there is any default ranging from one to several, the tenant has got to show sufficient cause if his case is to be taken out of the mischief of s. 9(1) (ii).

1 xxx xxx xxx 12.

For the reasons given above, we are satisfied that the High Court took an erroneous view of law in interpreting clause (ii) of s. 9(1) of the Act as the tenants have been proved, in this case, to have committed default in the payment of rent for Kharif 1961, they must be held to have failed to pay the rent regularly without sufficient cause as envisaged by clause (ii) and are, therefore, legally entitled to ejectment. The view taken by the High Court is legally erroneous and cannot be supported. In Civil Appeal No. 1319 of 1970, an objection was taken by the appellant that the appeal had abated as the heirs of respondent No. 1, Ganga Ram, were not brought on record. This objection has been overruled and we have allowed substitution as per our separate order dated 28th April 1980.

The result is that the appeals are allowed, the judgment of the High Court is set aside and the order of the Collector directing ejectment of the tenants is restored. The writ petitions filed by tenants before the High Court stand dismissed and the one filed by the appellant against Kalu Ram stands allowed. In the circumstances of the case, there will be no order as to costs."

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(1) there must be a failure on the part of the tenant to pay rent.

(2) Such failure must be to pay rent regularly, that is to say, the rent should be paid punctually consistently without any break of breach. (3) in case there was any default ranging from one to several, the tenant has got to show sufficient cause if his case is to taken out of the mischief of Section 9(1)(ii).

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%!5 "(i) a land owner desiring to eject a tenant under this Act shall apply in writing to the Assistant Collector First Grade having jurisdiction, who shall thereafter proceed as provided for in subsection (2) of subsection 10 of this Act, and the provisions of subsection (3) of the said section shall also apply in relation to such application, provided that the tenants rights to compensation and acquisition of occupancy rights, if any under the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887 ( XVI of 1887), shall not be affected. [Provided that if the tenant makes payment of arrears of rent and interst, to be calculated by the Assistant Collector, First Grade, at eight percentum per annum on such arrears together with such costs of the application, if any, as may be allowed by the Assistant Collector, First Grade, either on the day of first hearing or within fifteen days from the date of such hearing, he shall not be ejected]." $ 5 %

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