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Shabbir Mohammad Sayed vs Mrs. Noor Jehan Mushter Shaikh & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 784Decided 2 Aug 2022
Civil Appeal Nos. 5039-5040 of 2022
K.M. Joseph · Hrishikesh Roy

Background

The respondent (plaintiff) sued to establish her tenancy of a Mumbai premises, claiming she had paid Rs. 85,000 to the original tenants for transfer of tenancy rights and that the landlord had also recognised her as tenant. Her suit was dismissed by the trial court but decreed on appeal, declaring her the tenant and directing the landlord to hand over possession. When she sought execution of this decree, the appellant (a stranger to the original suit) resisted, claiming that during the pendency of the plaintiff's appeal, both the original tenant and the landlord had separately executed documents on the same day (24 January 2014) purportedly transferring rights to him. His resistance application under Order XXI Rule 97 CPC was rejected by the Execution Court, the Appellate Bench, and the High Court in revision.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that any assignment by the original tenant to the appellant was barred by Section 26 of the Maharashtra Rent Control Act (which prohibits a tenant from subletting or transferring tenancy rights unless there is a contract to the contrary or landlord ratification), and found no valid ratification because the landlord's own document to the appellant never referred to or acknowledged the tenant's assignment. The Court also found the appellant's case self-contradictory: his claim of possession from the "lawful tenant" (who purportedly handed over possession for Rs. 9,40,000) was legally and factually irreconcilable with his simultaneous claim of a separate tenancy created the same day directly with the landlord (who claimed to be in possession himself), both could not be true, and if the tenant's tenancy was still valid, the landlord could not simultaneously create a fresh tenancy in the appellant's favour without first extinguishing it. Because these transactions were also made only during the pendency of the plaintiff's appeal and were legally unsustainable, the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of the appellant's resistance to execution and dismissed his appeals.

Lesson Learnt

A person who acquires "rights" in tenanted property through documents executed by different, competing claimants (a purported tenant and the landlord) on the same day, especially during ongoing litigation over that property, cannot rely on mutually contradictory transactions to defeat execution of a court decree; such last-minute, internally inconsistent transfers will not be recognised by the courts.

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

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