# SHRI VIDY A PRACHAR TRUST v. PANDIT BASANT RAM

- **Citation:** [1970] 1 S.C.R. 66
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1969-03-21
- **Case number:** Civil Appeal No. 499 of 1966
- **Bench:** M. Hidayatullah, G. K. Mitter
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/shri-vidy-a-prachar-trust-v-pandit-basant-ram-4677
- **Pages:** 5

## Headnote

B
Eas/ Punjab Urban Ren/ Res1ric1ion Act,
1949--S. 13(2)(1)-Eviction for flon-payfnenr of ren1-Deposit1 in court under s. 31 Relief of Indebtedness Act, 1934-Whetht>r equivalent to tender of renl to landlord.
The appellant landlord made an application under s. 13 of the East
Punja!> Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 for the respondent's
eviction
from cerlain premises on lhe ground that the rent tor the premi!eS from C
October 1959 to June 1961 had not !>eon paid.
On the first day of bearing the mpondent appeared and tendered pan of the rent. He claimed
that he had made two deposits in the court of the Senior Sub-Judge under
s. 31 of the East Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act, I 934 and that this
was a valid tender of the balance rent to the landlord.
1be Rent Controller decided that the respondent
was not in default and the appellate
authority as well as the High Court took the same view.
On appeal to this Court,
D
HELD : The deposit under s. 3 I of the Relief of Indebtedness Act did
not save !he tenant from the consequences of the default as comtemplated
by s. 13 of the Urban Rent Restriction Act. (70 FJ
Section 31 is intended to operate between debtors and creditors where
diflicully in making the payment, either wholly or partly, may arise nnd
the dcblor wishes to save himself from interest
which is running. The E
Act is nor intended to opcrdtc between landlords and tenants; nor is the
Court of the Senior Sub-Judge a clearing house for rent.
Although the
general words "any person who owes money" may appear to cover the
case of a tenant, looking at the Act as a whole, the phrase must be read
to cover cases of debtors and creditors Oetwecn whom there is an agree·
ment for payment of interest because the deposit is intended to stop in·
terest from running.
No interest is agreed to be paid by tenants, at any
rate, nor ordinarily, and therefore, the section cannot be said to cover a F
case between a landlord and a tenant. [69 F·HJ

## Text

SHRI VIDY A PRACHAR TRUST
v.
PANDIT BASANT RAM
March 21, 1969
A
[M. HIDAYATULLAH, C.J. AND G. K. MITTER, J.)
B
Eas/ Punjab Urban Ren/ Res1ric1ion Act,
1949--S. 13(2)(1)-Eviction for flon-payfnenr of ren1-Deposit1 in court under s. 31 Relief of Indebtedness Act, 1934-Whetht>r equivalent to tender of renl to landlord.
The appellant landlord made an application under s. 13 of the East
Punja!> Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 for the respondent's
eviction
from cerlain premises on lhe ground that the rent tor the premi!eS from C
October 1959 to June 1961 had not !>eon paid.
On the first day of bearing the mpondent appeared and tendered pan of the rent. He claimed
that he had made two deposits in the court of the Senior Sub-Judge under
s. 31 of the East Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act, I 934 and that this
was a valid tender of the balance rent to the landlord.
1be Rent Controller decided that the respondent
was not in default and the appellate
authority as well as the High Court took the same view.
On appeal to this Court,
D
HELD : The deposit under s. 3 I of the Relief of Indebtedness Act did
not save !he tenant from the consequences of the default as comtemplated
by s. 13 of the Urban Rent Restriction Act. (70 FJ
Section 31 is intended to operate between debtors and creditors where
diflicully in making the payment, either wholly or partly, may arise nnd
the dcblor wishes to save himself from interest
which is running. The E
Act is nor intended to opcrdtc between landlords and tenants; nor is the
Court of the Senior Sub-Judge a clearing house for rent.
Although the
general words "any person who owes money" may appear to cover the
case of a tenant, looking at the Act as a whole, the phrase must be read
to cover cases of debtors and creditors Oetwecn whom there is an agree·
ment for payment of interest because the deposit is intended to stop in·
terest from running.
No interest is agreed to be paid by tenants, at any
rate, nor ordinarily, and therefore, the section cannot be said to cover a F
case between a landlord and a tenant. [69 F·HJ
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 499 of
1966.
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated
March 18, 1964 of the Punjab High Court in Civil Revision No. G
750 of 1962.
Bishan Narain and Naunir Lal, for the appellant.
N. N. Keswani, for the respondent.
Janardan Sharma and S. K. Nandy, for the intervener.
The Judgmem of the Court was delivered by
H
RidayatuDah, C.J.
This is a landlord's appeal against an
order of the High Court of Punjab, March 18, 1964, confirming
PRACHAR TRUST v. BASANT RAM (Hidayatullah, C.J.)
67
A the dismissal of his petition for the eviction of the respondent from
certain premises taken on rent.
The appellant had made the
application under s. 13 of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 on the allegation that rent for the premises from
October 1, 1959 to June 30, 1961 had not been paid. The rent
of the premises was Rs. 32/8/- and the water connection charges
B
were Rs. 2/8/-. On the first date of hearing the tenant appeared
and tendered Rs. 292/8/- as rent from October 1, 1960 to June
30, 1961. He also paid Rs. 7/- as interest and Rs. 25/- as costs.
These amounts were accepted by the landlord without prejudice
to his claim that the rent for the earlier period had not been paid.
c
It appears that the tenant had made two deposits in the Court
of the Senior Sub-Judge, Ludhiana under s. 31 of the East PunjabRelief of Indebtedness Act, 1934 on December 23, 1959 and
July 18, 1960, the amount being 210/- on each occasion.
The
tenant claimed that this was a valid tender of rent to the landlord.
The Rent Controller, by his order, decided that the tenant was
D
not in default and the Appellate Authority and the High Court
also took the same view. It was held by the Appellate Authority,
as well as by the High Court, that the deposit under s. 31 of the
Relief of Indebtedness Act was a valid tender under s. 13 of the
Urban Rent Restriction Act.
The Division Bench in the High
Court followed an earlier decision of the same Court reported in
E
Mam Chand v. Chhotu Ram('). The correctness of that decision
as well as the decision under appeal are challenged before us.
Before the hearing commenced the respondent took
objection to the grant of the special leave stating that the appellant was
guilty of making "certain inaccurate untrue and misleading stateF
ments in respect of certain material facts". The charge was that
before the Rent Controller there was no issue that the deposit
under s. 31 of the Relief of Indebtedness Act was a valid tender
of payment, although this was mentioned as a fact in the petition
for special leave. ·It was also said that this question was given
up before the Appellate Authority although it was stated that the
point was decided by the Appellate Authority.
Reliance was
G
placed in this connection upon two decisions of this Court reported
in Hari Narain v. Badri Das(') and Rajabhai Abdul Rehman
Munshi v. Vasudev Dhanjibhai Mody('). These were cases of
gross mis-statement where the party applying for special leave had
deliberately chosen to make false statements and false pleas.
[n
the present case the same cannot be said of the appellant. There
ff was only one issue before the Court and it was whether the deposit
(I) I. L. R. [1964] I Pb. 626.
2. [1964] 2 S. C.R. 203.
3. [1964] 3 S. C. R. 480
68
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
(1970] I S.C.R.
under one Act was good for the purposes of the other Act. All
A
that the courts had to consider was whether that deposit saved the
tenant from eviction or not. The High Court mentioned that this
was the only point before all the courts below and we do not think
that the complaint that there had been any false averment in the
petition for special leave was sustainable.
We accordingly
rejected the contention, raised by C.M.P. No. 64 of 1969.
B
As regards the merits of the case s. 13(2)(i) of the East
Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act reads as follows :-
" 13. Eviction of tenants.
( I ) A tenant in possession of a building or rented
land shall not be evicted therefrom in execution of a
decree passed before or after the commencement of this
Act or otherwise and whether before or after the termination of the tenancy, except in accordance with the
provisions •of this section, or in pursuance of an order
made under section 13 of the Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1947, as subsequently amended.
( 2) A landlord who seeks to evict his tenant shall
apply to the Controller for a direction in that behalf.
If the Controller, after giving the tenant a reasonable
opportunity of showing cause against the applicant, is
5atisficd-
( i) that the tenant has not paid or tendered the rent
due by him in respect of the building or rcnt~d
land within fifteen days after th~ expiry of the
time fixed in the agreement of tenancy with his
landlord or in the absence of any such agreement, by the last day of the month next following that for which the rent is payable :
Provided that if the tenant on the first hearing of the
application for ejectment after due service pays
or tenders the arrears of rent and interest at six
per cent per annum on such arrears together
with the cost of application assessed by the Controller, the tenant shall be deemed to have duly
paid or tendered the rent within the time aforesaid.''
The Act does not lay down any other procedure under which
money can be deposited with any Government Authority.
Such
provisions are to be found in other Rent Control Acts but are
missing in this Act. Eviction, thrrefore, takes place on the ground
of non-payment or tender of rent due within time fixed by
the
c
D
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F
G
H
A
B
c
D
E
F
G
H
PRACHAR TRUST v. BASANT RAM (Hidoyatullah, C./.)
69
tenancy and 15 days thereafter.
There is only one saving for
the tenant and that is when he tenders the full rent in Court
before th~ Rent Controller together with interest and .:osts. In
the present case, the tenant did tender rent but only for a portion
of the period and he relied on his deposit under the Relief of
Indebtedness Act as due discharge of pis liability for the earlier
period. It may be stated that the deposit before the Senior .SubJudge was made not only of arrears of rent but prospectively for
some future period for which the rent was then not due.
The
question is whether such payment is a valid paymel't or tender to
the landlord.
Section 31 of the Relief of Indebtedness Act rea"s as
follows:-
"31. Deposit in court.
( 1) Any person who owes money may at any time
deposit in court a sum of money in full or part payment to his creditor.
(2) The court on receipt of such deposit shall give
notice thereof to the creditor and shall, on his application, pay the sum to him .
. (3) From the date of such deposit interest shall
cease to run on· the sum so deposited."
This Act was passed to govern the relation between the debtors
and creditors. The scheme of the Act bears upon .this relationship because it provides for insolvency procedure, usurious
loans, damdupat, redemption of mortgages, deposit in court, and
sets up Debt Conciliation Boards, suitably amending the civil law
wherever necessary. Incidentally, it provides for deposit in court
with a view to giving a chance to debtors ta save interest on the
outstanding dues either wholly or partially.
The section, therefore, is intended to operate between debtors and creditors where
difficulty in making the payment, either wholly or partly, may
arise and the debtor wishes to save himself from interest which is
running.
The Act is not intended to operate between landlords
and tenants; nor ,is the Court of the Senior Sub-Judge created into
a clearing house for rent.
Although the geueral words "any
person who owes money" may appear to cover the case of a
tenant, we have to look at the Act as a whole and see what kind
of a person is intended thereby.
The phrase must be read to
cover cases of debtors and creditors between whom there iS an
agreement for payment of interest because the deposit is intended
to stop interest from running. No interest is agreed to be paid
by tenants, at any rate, nor ordinarily, and, therefore, the .section
70
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 1970} I S.C.11..
cannot be said to cover a case between a landlord and a tcnanL
A
There is no provision in the Urban Rent Res1riction Act for
making a deposit except one, and that is on the first day of the
hearing of the case.
It could not have been intended that all
tenants who may be disinclined to pay rent to their landlords
should be enabled to deposit it in the Court of a Senior Sub-Judge
making the Senior Sub-Judge a kind of a Rent Collector for all
B
landlords. The provision for stoppage of interest is a pointer that
the interest in the first instance must have been due. In our
judgment, s. 31 has been misunderstood in the High Court.
A
second pointer is that the amount may be deposited in part which
cannot possibly be a valid tender in case of renl It may be
pointed out that the decision of the Division Bench runs counter
c
to two other decisions of single Judges of the same High Court
who have taken the same view which we are taking here.
The
decisions are noticed by the Division Bench but have not been
accepted.
The decisions of the learned single Judges are to be
preferred.
The Division Bench has taken a very extended view
of the deposit under the Relief of Indebtedness Act.
D
Further the deposit of money in the present case was not only
of the rent due but also of future rent.
Under s. 19 read with
s. 6 of the Urban Rent Restriction Act a landlord is liable to be
sent to jail if he recovers advance rent beyond one month. lt is
impossible to think that the landlords would be .equired 10 go
to the Court of the Senior Sub-Judge with a view to finding out
E
whether their tenants have deposited rent due to them or not. No
doubt there is a provision for sending a notice, but we do not
think that that notice is intended to cover such cases.
On th•
whole, therefore, we are of opinion that the deposit under s. 31
of the Relief of Indebtedness Act did not save the tenant from
the consequences of the default as contemplated by s. 13 of the
F
Urban Rent Restriction Act.
We accordingly allow the appeal
and, setting aside the judgment of the High Court, order the eviction of the tenant from the premises 'rented out by him. He sh.ill
have three months' time in which to vacate the premises.
The
costs throughout must also be borne by the respondent.
R.K.P.S.
Appeal allowed.
r
\-