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Ambadas Khanduji Shinde & Ors. v. Ashok Sadashiv Mamurkar & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 1525 of 2017)Decided 31 Jan 2017
Civil Appeal No. 1525 of 2017
Chief Justice J.S. Khehar · Justice N.V. Ramana · Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud

Background

Landlords sought eviction of long-time tenants running a travel agency from a shop, on grounds including bona fide personal need (to start a family kirana/grocery business), unauthorised change of business use, and rent default. The trial court and first appellate court both found in the landlords' favour on bona fide need after a full trial, but the Bombay High Court, in a civil revision petition, reversed those concurrent findings.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had exceeded the narrow scope of its revisional jurisdiction under Section 115 of the Civil Procedure Code, which is limited to correcting jurisdictional errors and does not permit re-appreciating evidence to overturn concurrent factual findings of fact by two lower courts. It found the trial court's reasoning, that the landlords' sale of other shops to existing tenants, and genuine need to settle family members in independent businesses, supported bona fide requirement, was not perverse. The High Court's order was set aside and the eviction decree restored, with the tenants given six months to vacate.

Lesson Learnt

A High Court's revisional power is not a second appeal in disguise: it cannot be used to re-weigh evidence and overturn factual findings that two lower courts have both already agreed on.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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