Sudhakar Pati vs Sandhya Karmakar

Biswajit Basu, J

The revisional application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is at the instance of the tenant in an ejectment suit under Section 6 of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act in short) and is directed against an Order No. 24 dated January 29, 2010 passed by the 4th Court of the learned Civil Judge (Junior Division) at Sealdah in Ejectment Suit No. 38 of 2006 whereby the learned Trial Judge has disposed of an application under Section 7(2) of the said Act filed by the tenant/petitioner.

The plaintiff in the suit has alleged that the defendant is a defaulter in payment of rent since January, 2000.

The defendant by filing an application under Section 7(2) of the said Act has claimed that he has deposited rent with the rent controller for the period from March, 2001 to April, 2006.

The learned Trial Judge in the order impugned has held that the tenant since has not deposited rent with the rent controller from the month of January, 2000, all the deposits made with the rent controller are invalid deposits.

The validity of deposits of rent with the rent controller for the period from March, 2001 till April, 2006 can only be questioned if those deposit were not made in accordance with the procedure prescribed under Sections 21 and 22 of the said Act and in accordance with the procedure prescribed under the corresponding rules of the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Rules, 1999 regarding the deposit rents with the rent controller.

The learned Trial Judge has committed error in declaring the said deposits of rent with the rent controller as invalid deposits only on the ground that the tenant has not made the deposit of rent with the rent controller from the month of January, 2000.

The order impugned, therefore, is not sustainable and is accordingly set aside.

Mr. Bandopadhyay, learned advocate appearing on behalf of the opposite party submits that during the pendency of the revisional application the suit has been transferred to the 2nd Court of the learned Civil Judge (Junior Division) at Barrackpore.

Be that as it may, C.O. No. 596 of 2010 is disposed of by directing the aforesaid learned Court where the suit is now pending to dispose of the application under Section 7(2) of the said Act filed by the defendant afresh in accordance with law.

Since the suit is pending since 2006, the learned Trial Judge is requested to expedite the hearing of the said application and to dispose of the same within a period of eight weeks from the date of communication of this order.

There will no order as to costs.

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