Shri Behari Lal Charitable Trust vs Estate Officer

Bharat Bhushan Parsoon, J.—Impleadment vide order dated 19.3.2012 (Annexure P-1) pursuant to an application under Order I Rule 10 read with Section 151 CPC filed by the Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Ambala of Estate Officer, Ambala, appointed by the State of Haryana to manage the trust property, as one of the respondents in the ejectment petition preferred by Shri Behari Lal Charitable Trust against the respondents-tenants, is under challenge in this revision petition.

Shri Behari Lal Charitable Trust, Railway Road, Ambala Cantt. had filed an ejectment petition against Shiv Batra and another for their ejectment u/s 13 of Haryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction), Act 1973 (hereinafter referred to as ''the Act'') from the premises in litigation.

Impugning the order dated 19.3.2012, it is claimed by the petitioner - trust that neither relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties has suffered any severance nor the petitioner - trust has been dispossessed of the property. It is averred that ejectment petition u/s 13 of the Act cannot be converted into one for determination of title of the property. Prayer for setting aside the impugned order has been made.

In a matter of ejectment preferred by the land-lord against the tenants, intervention of a stranger as a 3rd party is an anathema. A suitor who initiates litigation is dominus litus. In a petition for ejectment under the Act, question of title is an alien subject. Invocation of forum of Rent Controller by the petitioner - landlord for seeking an ejectment of the tenants cannot be taken as a litigational ground by a 3rd party (which is not even a privy to the relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties) for adjudication of claim of its title. Question of title to the premises in a petition for eviction of a tenant constitutes distinct, different and set up part lis unconnected with the one, involved in the petition for ejectment.

When questioned counsel for respondents No. 1 and 4 viz. Estate Officer, Ambala and Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Ambala, respectively, in this petition have not been able to even prima-facie show that lease of land of which premises in petition forms just one part, has been cancelled by the State Government and pursuant thereto possession has already been taken over, by these respondents.

Claim of title of the respondents No. 1 and 4 to the land on lease in possession of the petitioner - trust cannot be adjudicated in the petition pending before the Rent Controller, the said question being out of jurisdictional sweep and domain of the said Rent Controller. Such matters which are to be decided by a Civil Court cannot be allowed to be agitated and debated before the Rent Controller. Multifariousness cannot be brought up to blur the real controversy before the Rent Controller. Impugned order suffers from factual as also legal error. Neither the application on behalf of Municipal Corporation, Ambala in the given facts and circumstances was maintainable before the Rent Controller nor the question of title sought to be put-forth by respondent No. 1 in the petition, is adjudicatable before the said forum.

Respondents No. 1 and 4 have recourse available to them to get the question of title to the property in dispute decided from a competent Court. Separate petition for ejectment on proof of his being a landlord is also not foreclosed. Suffice it to say that by no means sanctity, sweep and speed of the pending ejectment proceedings before the Rent Controller can be jeopardized by the respondents No. 1 and 4 by bringing in issues which are alien to the lis pending adjudication before the Rent Controller.

Accepting the present revision petition, the impugned order dated 19.3.2012 passed by the Rent Controller, Ambala (though in the order it has wrongly been mentioned as having been passed by Additional Civil Judge (Sr. Divn.), Ambala) is set aside.

The Rent Controller would decide the petition for eviction within a period of six months.