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Smt. Shail Aggarwal and Anr vs. Shri Gian Chand Garg and Ors

Rent Control Revision · 2026:DHC:8207Decided 22 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
RC.REV. 377/2024CNR: DLHC010918922024
Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar

Background

In an eviction petition filed by the landlord (respondent) under the summary procedure of Section 25-B of the Delhi Rent Control Act, the tenants (petitioners, a widow and her son) filed their application seeking leave to defend after the deadline had passed. They asked the Rent Controller to condone the delay, citing the widow's husband's death during Covid-19, her own poor health, and her son's lack of involvement in the litigation. The Rent Controller rejected the delay-condonation application, and consequently the leave-to-defend application itself was never taken on record, meaning the tenants lost their chance to contest the eviction.

Decision Breakdown

The High Court dismissed the tenants' challenge, holding that its revisional powers under Section 25-B(8) of the DRC Act are narrow, more like supervision over the decision-making process than a full appeal, and it will only step in for a clear jurisdictional error or manifest illegality, not simply because another view was possible. It found the tenants' delay-condonation application contained only vague, general claims about hardship without specific facts explaining the actual period of delay, and noted they never filed any rejoinder disputing the landlord's specific rebuttal of their claims.

Lesson Learnt

When seeking condonation of delay in filing a legal defence, vague statements about general hardship are not enough: you must specifically explain, with supporting details, exactly what prevented you from filing on time throughout the entire delay period, or risk losing your chance to defend the case altogether.

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