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Om Prakash & Anr. v. Mishri Lal (Dead) by his LR. Savitri Devi

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 4309 of 2017)Decided 21 Mar 2017
Civil Appeal No. 4309 of 2017
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice Amitava Roy

Background

The appellants, claiming joint ownership of a property through a will left by their grandmother, sued to evict their tenant for non-payment of rent and unauthorised sub-letting, and separately sought release of the premises for their own bona fide business use. The trial court decreed eviction, but the Revisional Court and then the Allahabad High Court reversed this, holding that the appellants had failed to prove the will and therefore lacked standing as landlords. The appellants appealed to the Supreme Court, pointing to an earlier, final compromise decree in a separate family suit that had already declared them joint owners of the same property.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had erred by focusing solely on whether the unregistered will was formally proved, while ignoring that an unchallenged, final compromise decree from 1989 had already settled the appellants' joint ownership. Since the tenant had admitted paying rent to the appellants' father and was bound by the rule that a tenant cannot deny his landlord's title during the tenancy (Section 116, Evidence Act), his later attempt to deposit rent in court in the landlord's name after the compromise decree was invalid and amounted to default. The Court also upheld the finding of unauthorised sub-letting to the tenant's nephew. It restored the trial court's decree, set aside the High Court's judgment, and ordered the tenant's eviction within three months.

Lesson Learnt

A tenant cannot keep disputing a landlord's title once that title has been conclusively settled by an earlier, unchallenged decree, and continuing to pay or deposit rent to the wrong person after being put on notice of a change in ownership amounts to default that can justify eviction.

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

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