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Meera Devi (D) Thr. LR. vs Dinesh Chandra Joshi (D) Thr. LRs.

Not available · 2024 INSC 725Decided 19 Sept 2024
Not available
Justice J.K. Maheshwari · Justice Rajesh Bindal

Background

The appellant landlady sought eviction of the respondent-tenant from a house in Jhansi on the ground of non-payment of rent since 1991, despite serving a statutory notice in 1997. The Trial Court decreed eviction, but subsequent revisions and a High Court writ petition by the tenant went back and forth, with the matter reaching the Supreme Court, where in 2014 an interim order required the tenant to pay rent at Rs. 4,000 per month during the pendency of the appeal. Both original parties died during the long litigation and were represented by their legal heirs by the time of final disposal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the tenant had failed to comply with its own 2014 interim order: no rent had been paid from March 2017 onward, in clear default of the Court's directions. The Court held that in eviction proceedings for non-payment of rent, a tenant is obligated not just to clear existing arrears but also to keep paying rent regularly during the litigation, and failure to do so, even where it happens during the pendency of the case itself, is grounds for eviction. Since the tenant had defaulted even on the reduced court-ordered rent, the Supreme Court allowed the landlady's appeal, set aside the High Court's judgment, and directed the tenant's eviction, while preserving the landlady's right to separately recover the arrears.

Lesson Learnt

A tenant fighting an eviction case over rent must keep paying rent as directed throughout the litigation, including any interim payment ordered by a court during appeal, failing to do so can itself become the final, decisive ground for eviction, regardless of how the underlying dispute started.

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

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