The Patna High Court recently comprising of a bench Justice Anil Kumar Sinha observed that the payment of salami by a tenant is not relevant for deciding the real issue of landlord's personal necessity in a suit for eviction. (Jagdish Prasad Khandelwal v. Vikash Agrawal)
Facts of the case
The petitioner has challenged the order, passed in Eviction Suit, by which the request of the petitioner for verification of signature of the father of the plaintiff-respondent upon the diary by handwriting expert has been rejected. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner was inducted as a tenant by the father of the plaintiff- respondent in the year 1989 on the basis of oral tenancy. He further submitted that subsequently the tenancy was reduced into writing by the plaintiff’s father and in a diary maintained by him, both had put their signatures. The contention of the petitioner is that at that point of time, a sum of Rs. 80,000/- was paid by the petitioner-defendant to the father of the plaintiff-respondent as Salami for tenancy and Rs. 10,000/- for repair of the ceiling of the tenanted premises. He further submitted that in the course of examination as plaintiff witness, the father of the plaintiff-respondent has denied his signature on the diary and stated that the same would be verified through the expert. Accordingly, his submission was that despite acceptance before the learned Court below by the father of the plaintiff-respondent, he did not take any step for verification of his signature on the diary by the expert. As such, the petitioner filed a petition for having the signatures verified through a handwriting expert before the learned Trial Court, but the learned Trial Court has erroneously rejected the same.
Contention of the Parties
The Counsel for the plaintiff- respondent submitted that the suit is purely for eviction on the ground of personal necessity. The admitted position was that the petitioner-defendant has accepted the relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties. The learned Court below, while rejecting the petition filed by the petitioner, has came to the conclusion that in the instant suit for eviction, the plaintiff’s only case is to prove the genuineness of his personal necessity, specially in the light of the fact that the relationship of the landlord and tenant is not disputed. He further submitted that the learned Court below further came to the conclusion that the defendant has not been able to show as to in what manner the comparison of the signature of the father of the plaintiff on the said diary would be relevant for the proper adjudication of the real issue involved in the suit. He next submitted that the learned Court below has further come to the conclusion that a petition has been filed by the defendant in order to delay the disposal of the suit
Courts Observation and Judgment
The bench taking note of the submissions of the parties remarked, "Having heard learned Counsel for the parties and upon perusal of the materials available on record, including the impugned order, it is evident that admittedly the suit is for eviction on the ground of personal necessity. The payment of salami of Rs. 80,000/- and Rs. 10,000/- for repair of the ceiling of the tenanted premises given by the petitioner-defendant is not relevant for deciding the real issue of personal necessity in the suit." The application was dismissed accordingly.
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