Atindra Prasad Nath vs Aloke Saha

Biswajit Basu, J

The defendant/tenant in a suit for ejectment is the petitioner of the present revisional application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

The petitioner in the suit filed an application under Section 7 (2) of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as the 'said Act') inviting the learned trial Judge to determine the arrear rent and if found due extend the time to deposit the said arrear rent.

The learned trial Judge by the order dated July 16, 2013 disposed of the said application holding that the tenant/petitioner is defaulter in payment of rent for the period from July 2011 till June 2013 i.e. the month when the said application was disposed of.

The petitioner by the said order was directed to deposit the assessed arrear rent along with the statutory interest by two instalments. The first of such instalments was directed to be deposited within August 16, 2013 and the second instalment was directed to be deposited within September 16, 2013.

The petitioner thereafter filed an application for recalling of the said order and rehearing of the said application under Section 7(2) of the said Act contending, inter alia, that he is depositing rent regularly with the rent controller but could not produce the rent control challans at the time of disposal of the said application as he was not aware of the date of the order.

The landlord/opposite party also filed an application under Section 7 (3) of the said Act for striking out the defence of the petitioner against delivery of possession for non-compliance of the order under Section 7 (2) of the said Act.

The learned trial Judge by the order dated May 21, 2015 dismissed the said application filed by the petitioner under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure and allowed the application filed by the opposite party under Section 7 (3) of the said Act thereby struck out the defence of the petitioner against delivery of possession.

The petitioner assailed the said order in revision under Section 115A of the Code of Civil Procedure before the learned District Judge at Alipore, District 24 Parganas (South) being C.R. No. 22 of 2016.

The said revision was ultimately dismissed as not maintainable by the learned District Judge vide order dated September 1, 2017.

The petitioner thereafter challenged the said order in Ejectment Appeal No. 13 of 2018 but on July 18, 2018 withdrew the said appeal.

The petitioner is now challenging the said order dated May 21, 2015 in the present revisional application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

The application under Section 7(2) of the said Act was disposed of on July 16, 2013 requiring the petitioner to deposit the assessed arrear rent within August 16, 2013. The time to deposit the assessed arrear rent is inflexible in terms of the proviso appended to Section 7(2) of the said Act.

Striking out defence of the tenant against delivery of possession is consequential to the default in complying the order passed under Section 7(2) of the said Act.

The learned trial Judge, therefore, has not committed any error in dismissing the application filed by the petitioner under Section 151 of the Code and in allowing the application filed by the opposite party under Section 7(3) of the said Act as such order impugned does not call for any interference.

The steps taken by the petitioner to assail the order impugned in the present revisional application is a glaring example of abuse of the process of Court which must be penalized.

C.O. 2629 of 2018 is therefore dismissed with a costs of Rs. 10,000/- to be paid by the petitioner to the opposite party within three weeks from date.

The 1st Court of learned Civil Judge, (Junior Division), at Alipore, District 24 Parganas (South) is directed to expedite the hearing of the Ejectment Suit No. 13759 of 2011 and to dispose it of within a period of 12 months from the date of communication of this order positively without granting any unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.