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Praful Manohar Rele v. Krishnabai Narayan Ghosalkar & Others

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 50 of 2014)Decided 3 Jan 2014
Civil Appeal No. 50 of 2014
Justice T.S. Thakur · Justice Vikramajit Sen

Background

A homeowner allowed a goldsmith to occupy part of his house without payment for humanitarian reasons and later sought possession from the occupant's heirs. The heirs claimed they were rent-paying tenants, while the owner alternatively sought eviction on grounds available under rent-control law. The first appeal court found that they were licensees, but the High Court rejected the owner's case because it viewed his alternative tenant-based plea as inconsistent.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the owner's appeal and restored the first appeal court's decree for possession. The supported factual finding was that occupation arose from a gratuitous licence that had been validly terminated. The owner could plead alternative relief based on the defendants' own tenancy claim without unfairly surprising them, because the parties had fully tried both possibilities. In any event, success on the principal licence claim made the objection to the alternative plea immaterial. The occupants received until 30 April 2014 to leave if they filed the required undertakings; otherwise the decree was immediately enforceable.

Lesson Learnt

An owner can put forward an alternative legal basis for possession when an occupant disputes whether the arrangement is a licence or a tenancy. Pleading that alternative does not automatically defeat a principal claim that the evidence actually proves.

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

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