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Dina Nath (D) by LRs. v. Subhash Chand Saini

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1074Decided 24 Sept 2019
Civil Appeal No. 4563 of 2014
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice M.R. Shah · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

The appellants were tenants of a shop in Delhi. Their landlord filed an eviction case and, alleging the tenants had failed to deposit rent as directed, got the Rent Controller to strike out the tenants' defence entirely: a step that effectively disables a tenant from contesting the eviction case. The Delhi High Court upheld this. An earlier two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court agreed on the legal principle (that striking out a defence is a discretionary, serious step, not an automatic one) but disagreed on how it applied to these facts, so the case was referred to a larger bench.

Decision Breakdown

On reviewing the rent accounts, the Court found that once proper adjustments were made, the tenants had actually paid/deposited more than what was due to the landlord at all relevant times, so there was no deliberate or "contumacious" default of the kind that justifies the drastic step of striking out a tenant's defence. The Court held the Rent Controller and High Court had not exercised this power judiciously, set aside the impugned judgment, and allowed the appeal, while directing that the long-pending eviction case itself (filed in 2007) be decided by the Rent Controller within a year.

Lesson Learnt

Striking out a tenant's defence for non-payment of rent is meant only for genuine, deliberate, bad-faith default, not for technical shortfalls, and courts should look at the real state of accounts before taking such a serious step.

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

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