Satish Kumar Mittal, J. — This is tenant's revision petition against the order of ejectment passed against him in a petition filed under Section 13-A of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’).
2. In this case, the demised premises is a 7-1/2 marlas residential house situated in Sector 18, Chandigarh. The said house is owned by the respondent and his wife. The respondent-landlord filed the aforesaid ejectment application being a specified landlord on the ground of personal necessity on 12.4.2001 under Section 13-A of the Act. Additionally, the landlord also sought ejectment on the ground that the tenant was in arrears of rent with effect from 1.1.1997 till the date of filing of the ejectment petition. However, the ejectment of the petitioner was ordered on the ground of personal necessity being specified landlord.
3. Before the Rent Controller, the petitioner contested the petition on issue No. 1 i.e whether the respondent was a specified landlord or not, though the issue No. 2 regarding bona fide requirement of the demised premises by the respondent for his personal use and occupation was not pressed. Vide order dated 6.8.2003, the Rent Controller, Chandigarh allowed the ejectment petition filed by the respondent. On issue No. 1 it was held that the respondent is a specified landlord. On issue No. 2, it was found that the demised premises is bona fidely required by the respondent for his personal use and occupation as well as for his other family members.
4. Feeling aggrieved against the aforesaid order, the petitioner filed Civil Revision No. 4774 of 2003. The contention of the petitioner regarding maintainability of the composite petition by the landlord claiming eviction of the tenant on the ground of non-payment of rent as well as on the ground of personal necessity, being a specified landlord under Section 13-A of the Act, was held to be not survived on the concession given by the counsel for the landlord that he gave up the ground of non-payment of rent for seeking the ejectment of the tenant. Regarding the ground of ejectment for personal requirement being a specified landlord under Section 13-A of the Act, counsel for the petitioner did not assail the finding recorded by the Rent Controller on issue No. 1 i.e the respondent was found to be a specified landlord. The only contention raised by the counsel for the petitioner was that the Rent Controller did not record any finding with regard to issue No. 2 i.e whether the landlord requires the premises in question for his bona fide use as residence or not. Though the counsel for the tenant did not press this issue before the Rent Controller but this Court observed that the Rent Controller should have recorded the finding in terms of Section 13-A of the Act to the effect that the specified landlord requires the premises in question for his personal bona fide necessity. On that account, the order of the Rent Controller was set aside by this Court vide order dated 8.3.2004 and the matter was remanded to the Rent Controller with a direction to finally dispose of the proceedings within a period of six months from the date of appearance of the parties.
5. After the remand, the Rent Controller again passed the order of ejectment against he petitioner by the impugned order dated 14.10.2004 It appears that before the Rent Controller, only issue No. 2 was argued i.e regarding bona fide requirement of the premises in question by the respondent for his personal use and occupation. The finding on issue No. 1 was never challenged by the petitioner at the time of hearing of Civil Revision No. 4774 of 2003. On issue No. 2, after taking into consideration the evidence led by the landlord, the Rent Controller found that the requirement of the respondent is bona fide and he requires the demised premises for his personal necessity and family members. It has been found that except the house in question, there is or was no other house owned by the respondent.
6. The petitioner-tenant has again challenged the said ejectment order by filing the present petition. Counsel for the petitioner only submits that the Rent Controller has not recorded any finding on issue No. 1 as to whether the respondent was a specified landlord or not within the meaning of Section 2(hh) of the Act. He submits that vide order dated March 8, 2004 passed in Civil Revision No. 4774 of 2003 filed by the petitioner, this Court set aside the order of the Rent Controller and remanded the matter to him to finally dispose of the proceedings within six months. It was also observed in that order that it will be open for the parties to take up all the grounds available to them in accordance with law. The counsel for the petitioner submits that without recording the finding on issue No. 1, no ejectment can be ordered under Section 13-A of the Act. Though counsel for the petitioner has not assailed the finding recorded by the Rent Controller on issue No. 2.
7. On the other hand, counsel for the respondent submitted that when the petitioner filed the earlier revision petition against the order dated August 6, 2003 passed by the Rent Controller, he did not challenge the finding on issue No. 1 recorded by the Rent Controller before this Court. In the said petition, only two points were raised, one with regard to the maintainability of the composite petition and the other not dealing with issue No. 2 i.e the respondent-landlord requires the demised premises for his personal use and occupation. The first contention was held to be not survived because of the concession made by the counsel for the landlord. As far as on the second contention i.e the finding regarding the requirement of demised premises by the respondent-landlord for his personal use and occupation, the order was set aside and the matter was remanded. The counsel further submitted that after the remand, even before the Rent Controller, the petitioner did not argue on issue No. 1. The arguments were addressed only on issue No. 2, and finding was recorded in favour of the landlord. Thus, now the petitioner cannot be permitted to say that no finding has been recorded by the Rent Controller on issue No. 1.
8. After hearing the counsel for the parties and going through the record of this case, I do not find any substance in the instant revision petition. In his order dated August 6, 2003, the Rent Controller recorded a specific finding against the petitioner on issue No. 1 by making the following observations :—
“12. I am afraid that these arguments advanced by Ld. counsel for the respondent are devoid of any merit. The authorities referred to by Ld. counsel for the respondent supra are distinguishable and are not applicable to the facts of the present case. In the given situation and the evidence which is on the file, the respondent has failed to show me any law on this point that IDPL is not a Govt. or a State. On the other hand, I am duly convinced by the arguments of Ld. counsel for the petitioner which is supported with number of authorities on this point. The petitioner has retired from Govt. Company, the affairs of which are controlled by Central Govt. Ex. P-16 page-11 of annual report 1998-1999 shows that Govt. has 100% share in the company i.e IDPL. Its accounts are being audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The salary of the employees is given by the Govt. which is evident from clause 3.52, page-27 of annual report 1998-1999.
13. As per Section 21 of IPC Clause-12, the employees of corporation as defined U/s 617 of Companies Act are public servants. Section 617 defines a Govt. company which runs as under :
“For the purpose of this Act Govt. company means any company in which not less than 51 % of the paid up share capital is held by the Central Govt., or by any State Govt. or Govt. or partly by the Central Govt. and partly by one or more State Govt. and includes a company which is a subsidiary of Govt. company as thus defined.”
14. Similarly, Section 619 refers that the Auditor of a Govt. company shall be appointed and re-appointed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. So, it is evident that where the Govt. has more than 51% share in a company i.e a Govt. company as per Section 617 of Companies Act. The petitioner has retired from IDPL in which 100 shares are of Govt. so, it is held to be a Govt. company. Once it is a Govt. company, all the employees working in the same are public servants and fall under the category of Section 2(hh) of East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act. There are number of authorities which I want to refer here in which employees of various organisations are held to be public servant or Govt. employees. As per authority reported in 1986 (1) RCR (Crl.) 46 titled as State though OBI (sic) v. K.K Anand, of Hon'ble Apex Court it is held that employees of LIC are public servants. The petitioner comes under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and as per page 5.14 of report 1998-1999 even FCI comes under this Ministry and employees of FCI have been held specified landlord. The employees retired from private aided school are held to be employees as public servant and thus specified landlord held in authority 2003 (1) RCR 393 titled as Jaspal Singh v. Gurbax Singh and another. Employees of FCI also comes under this category decided in 1992 HRR 647 titled as Shri Om Parkash Tuli… v. Shri Vidya Bhushan Nagar…. for the petitioner further cited 1992 HRR 165 titled as Haryana Agriculture University, Yashpal Dhir v. R.N Gosain of Chandigarh, 1996 (1) RCR 229 titled as Khushi Ram Sood… v. Muneshwar Lal Kaushal…., 1987 HRR 253 titled as Fateh Chand v. Balbir Singh, 2000 (1) RCR 68 titled as Rattan Chand v. Swaran Singh, AIR 1976 SC 2335 titled as Mathura Dass… v. Smt. Ram Piari…., 1982 CLJ (Civil) 20 Division Bench, Moti Lal Gaur… v. Amrit Lal Chauhan…., 1993 HRR 57, Tarsem Singh… v. Dr. Vivek Puri…., 2000 HRR 828, Com. Harjit Singh v. H.C Sharma, 2001 (2) RCR 379, Parshotam Dass…Petitioner v. Yad Ram…, 2003 (1) RCR (Rent) 193, 2003 (1) RCR (Rent) 270 Ram Gopal Sharma v. Sukhdev Raj Rudra, 2001 (9) SCC 201, Dhanna Lal v. Kalavatibai, 2001 (2) RCR 605 and Vimla Sharma @ Bimla Sharma… v. Veeran Devi…., 2001 (2) RCR 517. In all these authorities, it has been clearly referred that these organisations fall under the category of Govt. and State. So, the employees of this concern are Govt. servants and specified landlords.
15. Ld. counsel for the petitioner has further submitted his arguments that petitioner if taken to be a specified landlord and can maintain his claim qua his 1/4th share in the house in dispute. Regarding 3/4th share which is of his wife he cannot get benefit under the category of specified landlord U/s 2(hh) of the Rent Act. This objection of Ld. counsel for the respondent is not tenable because the wife of the petitioner while appearing in the witness box has stated that she has no objection in case the eviction of the entire house is ordered in favour of the petitioner.
16. Even a co-owner can maintain the petition for eviction under the category of specified landlord. I get myself supported on this point by various authorities mentioned above. As per authority AIR 1976 SC 2335 case titled as Sri Ram Pasricha v. Jagannath, wherein it has been held that co-owner landlord is an owner. Suit by such landlord on ground of reasonable requirement of members of the family, it was held that the suit is maintainable. In the authority 1982 CLJ (Civil) 20 titled as Mathra Dass v. Ram Piari, of Hon'ble High Court Division Bench held that under Section 13 of East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 an application for ejectment by one of the many landlords is competent. In another authority 1993 HRR 57 titled as Moti Lal Gaur… v. Amrit Lal Chauhan…. (supra), wherein it has been held that even one of the landlords can singly maintain an application for ejectment against his tenant under Section 13-A of East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 under category of 2(hh). A co-owner is in fact owner of every part of composite property alongwith others and it cannot be said that he is only a part owner or fractional owner of the property.
17. In view of my discussion made above, the petitioner is a specified landlord U/s 2(hh) of Rent Act. Accordingly, this issue is decided in favour of the petitioner and against the respondent.”
9. The aforesaid finding recorded by the Rent Controller was not challenged by the petitioner in Civil Revision No. 4774 of 2003. The order of the Rent Controller was set aside only on one argument that the Rent Controller had not dealt with the issue of requirement of demised premises by the respondent-landlord for his personal use and occupation i.e issue No. 2, and on that account the impugned order was set aside and the matter was remanded. Though in the order dated March 8, 2004 it was observed that it will be open for the parties to raise all the points, but before the Rent Controller after the remand, the petitioner did not raise the argument on issue No. 1. Only the arguments were raised with regard to issue No. 2 and the same was decided against the petitioner, and the ejectment order was passed. Now the petitioner cannot be permitted to say that the Rent Controller did not record any finding on issue No. 1. Even now, this Court specifically asked the counsel for the petitioner about the infirmity in the finding recorded on issue No. 1 by the Rent Controller vide order dated August 6, 2003, but the learned counsel states that when no finding has been recorded on that issue after setting aside of the order, how he can explain about any infirmity in the same. I have perused the finding recorded on issue No. 1 by the Rent Controller and do not find any infirmity in the same. In this case, the respondent-landlord retired from the service on 31.3.2001 It has come in the evidence that after the retirement when the respondent was living in the government accommodation, he had to pay the penal rent. The ejectment application has been filed by the respondent under Section 13-A of the Act for personal necessity being specified landlord. The said provision was added in the Act with an object that the matter relating to the personal necessity of the specified landlord should be expeditiously disposed of. In this case, the matter is pending since 12.4.2001
10. In view the aforesaid, I do not find any merit in this petition and the same is hereby dismissed.
Petition dismissed.