SHEELA JAWARLAL NAGORI & ANR.versusKANTILAL NATHMAL BALDOTA & ORS.

                     [2014] 3 S.C.R. 795


           SHEELA JAWARLAL NAGORI & ANR.                             A
                               v.
         KANTILAL NATHMAL BALDOTA & ORS.
      (Special Leave Petition (C) No. 36518 of 2013)

                      MARCH 25, 2014
                                                                     B
            [RANJANA PRAKASH DESAI AND
                MADAN B. LOKUR, JJ.]

      TRANSFER OF PROPERTY ACT, 1882: Eviction
decree by trial court, upheld by appellate court - Plea of tenant    C
that the suit property was acquired by the Municipal
Corporation for the purpose of a primary school and the Land
Acquisition Officer had passed an award and, therefore, the
landlord was divested of his right, title and interest in the suit
property after the land acquisition proceedings and thus suit
for eviction of tenant was not maintainable - High Court noted       D
that there was no material to suggest that the Municipal
Corporation had taken possession of the suit property from
the landlord and on the contrary, the Corporation had
sanctioned a development plan submitted by the landlord in
respect of the suit property - Held: s. 16 of the Land Acquisition   E
Act, 1894 enables the acquiring authority to take possession
of acquired land and when that is taken, it would be free from
all encumbrances - In the absence of possession of the suit
property being taken by Corporation, the plea by the tenant
cannot be accepted that the landlord was divested of his right,      F
title or interest in the suit property - The tenant continued to
pay rent to the landlord even though according to the tenant
the landlord had no concern with the suit property after the
award was passed by the Land Acquisition Officer - The stand
of the tenant was, therefore, self-defeating - Tenant was liable     G
to be evicted.
    UNDERTAKING: Eviction decree - Request by tenant for
time to vacate the premises - Granted on condition of filing
                               795
                                                                     H
    796      SUPREME COURT REPORTS               [2014] 3 S.C.R.

A undertaking - Non-filing of undertaking - Held: Amounts to
    flagrant disobedience and undermines the authority of the
    High Court - High Court advised to consider having the tenant
    first file an undertaking and placed on record before granting
    any interim order after dismissal of the tenant's petition.
B      The respondent-landlord filed a suit for eviction
  which was decreed and upheld by the first appellate
  court. The appellant-tenant filed a writ petition before the
  High Court on the ground that the suit property was
  acquired by the Pune Municipal Corporation for the
C purpose of a primary school and the Land Acquisition
  Officer had passed an award and, therefore, the landlord
  was divested of his right, title and interest in the suit
  property after the land acquisition proceedings and
  therefore a suit for eviction of the tenant was not
  maintainable. The High Court noted that there was no
D material on record to suggest that the Pune Municipal
  Corporation had taken possession of the suit property
  from the landlord and that to the contrary, the Corporation
  had sanctioned a development plan submitted by the
  landlord in respect of the suit property. Aggrieved, the
E tenant filed instant SLP.
          Dismissing the SLP, the Court
       HELD: 1. Section 16 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894
  enables the acquiring authority to take possession of
  acquired land and when that is taken, it would be free
F from all encumbrances. Therefore, on a plain reading of
  the provision, in the absence of possession of the suit
  property being taken by the Corporation, the contention
  for the tenant cannot be accepted that the landlord was
  divested of his right, title or interest in the suit property.
G The tenant continued to pay rent to the landlord even
  though according to the tenant the landlord had no
  concern with the suit property after the award was
  passed by the Land Acquisition Officer. The stand of the
  tenant was, therefore, self-defeating. [Paras 12, 13] [800·
H C, E-G]
 SHEELA JAWARLAL NAGORI & ANR. v. KANTILAL                   797
          NATHMAL BALDOTA & ORS.
                                                                     A
     2. The tenants had the benefit of an interim order
passed by the High Court staying the execution of the
decree against them as well as a stay of operation of the
judgments of the trial court and the appellate Court. On the
dismissal of the proceedings by the High Court, the tenants
applied for continuation of the interim order for a period of        B
12 weeks. The appellants stated that he would file usual
 undertaking to the effectthat they would neither create third
 party interests nor part with possession and would hand
 over vacant and peaceful possession of the suit premises
to the landlord. The tenants failed to file any such                 c
 undertaking in the High Court. This court directed the
 tenants to file the necessary undertaking as ordered by the
 High Court within a week and subsequently the
 undertaking was filed. This indicates that even though the
 High Court trusts a litigant before It to comply with its orders,
                                                                     0
 sometimes a litigant does not take the High Court seriously.
 This is unfortunate and undermines the authority of the
 Court. Therefore, the High Court would be well advised to
 consider having the tenant first file an undertaking and
 placed on record before granting any interim order after
 dismissal of the tenant's petition. Otherwise this may place        E
 the High Court in a difficult position where its order is
 flagrantly disobeyed, as has happened in these cases.
 [Paras 14to16] [801-A-H; 802-A]
     CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Special Leave
                                                                     F
Petition (Civil) No. 36518 of 2013.

    From the Judgment and Order dated 24.10.2013 of the
High Court of Bombay in CRA No. 350 of 2013.
                                WITH
                                                                     G
SLP (C) No. 37456 of 2013.

   V. Giri, A.K. Singhla, Pravin Satale, Vijay Kumar, Rajiv
Shankar Dvivedi for the Petitioners.

                                                                     H
    798       SUPREME COURT REPORTS                 [2014] 3 S.C.R


A         Caveator-ln-person for the Respondents.
          The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
       MADAN B. LOKUR, J. 1. The question before us is
  whether a landlord can maintain a suit for eviction of his tenant
B even after an award has been passed in respect of the tenanted
  property under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
  In our opinion, the answer must be in the affirmative.
       2. The petitioners in both special leave petitions are the
C tenants of the respondent landlord. For convenience we have
  taken the facts from SLP (C) No. 37456 of 2013, but note that
  the issue that arises in both the cases is the same and the
  hearing proceeded on this basis.
        3. The landlord had instituted Civil Suit No. 433 of 2000
o in the Court of the 5th Additional Small Cause Judge and Jt.
  Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune for vacant possession of the
  'suit property' being CTS O!d 99-B Raviwar Peth, New 767
  Budhwar Peth, Pune from the tenant. The contention of the
  landlord was that the suit property was open space let out to
E the tenants and that it was not protected by the Maharashtra
  Rent Control Act, 1999 (for short the Act). The Trial Court
  accepted the contention of the landlord and passed a decree
  on 28th June, 2005 directing the tenant to hand over vacant
  possession of the suit property.
F      4. Feeling aggrieved, the tenant preferred Civil Appeal No.
  515 of 2005 before the Additional District Judge, Pune. The
  appeal was allowed by a judgment and order dated 3rd
  February, 2006 and the decree passed by the Trial Court set
  aside. It was held that the suit property was an open plot and
G that the provisions of the Act were not applicable, but it was
  held that the tenancy was required to be terminated in terms
  of Section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.
      5. The judgment and order passed by the appellate Court
H has attained finality since neither the tenant nor the landlord has
  SHEELA JAWARLAL NAGORI & ANR. v. KANTILAL 799
 NATHMAL BALDOTA & ORS. [MADAN B. LOKUR, J.]

challenged it.                                                       A

      6. Following up on the order passed by the Additional
District Judge, the landlord issued a notice to the tenant on 13th
February, 2006 terminating the tenancy under Section 106 of
the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. The tenant did not respond       B
to the notice and that led the landlord to file Civil Suit No. 207
of 2006 in the Court of the Small Causes Judge, Pune for
eviction of the tenant. The suit was decreed on 3rd March, 2009
and the tenant was directed to deliver vacant possession of the
suit property to the landlord.
                                                                     .c
     7. Feeling aggrieved, the tenant preferred Civil Appeal No.
225 of 2009 before the District Judge but that was dismissed
by judgment and order dated 19th January, 2012. The tenant
was given two months time to vacate the suit property.
                                                                     D
    8. Against the decision passed by the appellate Court the
tenant preferred Writ Petition No. 2089 of 2012 which was
dismissed by the Bombay High Court by its judgment and order
dated 24th October, 2013 (impugned).
                                                                     E
     9. In all the proceedings, the finding of fact has been that
the suit property let out to the tenant was open land. We are
not inclined to disturb this finding of fact arrived at by several
Courts and indeed this finding was not seriously challenged by
learned counsel for the tenant.                                      F
      10. The question raised by the tenant is that the suit
property was acquired by the Pune Municipal Corporation for
the purpose of a primary school and the Special Land
Acquisition Officer had passed an award in respect thereof on
3rd August, 1979. Accordingly, the landlord was divested of his      G
right, title and interest in the suit property after the land
acquisition proceedings and therefore a suit for eviction of the
tenant was not maintainable.

    11. The High Court noted that there was no material on           H
    800      SUPREME COURT REPORTS                 [2014] 3 S.C.R.

A record to suggest that the Pune Municipal Corporation had
  taken possession of the suit property from the landlord. On the
  contrary, the Corporation had sanctioned a development plan
  submitted by the landlord in respect of the suit property through
  a notification issued on 5th January, 1987. It is clear, therefore,
B that the Corporation had not taken possession nor had any
  intention of taking possession of the suit property.

      12. That apart, Section 16 of the Land Acquisition Act,
  1894 enables the acquiring authority to take possession of
C acquired land and when that is taken, it would be free from all
  encumbrances. Section 16 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894
  reads as follows:

          16. Power to take possession - When the Collector has
          made an award under Section 11, he may take possession
D         of the land, which shall thereupon vest absolutely in the
          Government, free from all encumbrances.

  Therefore, on a plain reading of the provision, in the absence
  of possession of the suit property being taken by the
E Corporation, the contention of learned counsel for the tenant
  cannot be accepted that the landlord was divested of his right,
  title or interest in the suit property.

       13. We may also note that it was brought out during the
F course of hearing that the tenant continues to pay rent to the
  landlord even though according to the tenant the landlord had
  no concern with the suit property after the award was passed
  on 3rd August, 1979 by the Special Land Acquisition Officer.
  The stand of the tenant seems to be self-defeating for on the
G one hand it is submitted that the landlord had no right, title or
  interest in the suit property but on the other hand the tenant
  continues paying rent to him.

        14. An issue that arises out of these cases, and which we
    would like to flag, relates to the purpose and effectiveness of
H
 SHEELA JAWARLAL NAGORI & ANR. v. KANTILAL 801
NATHMAL BALDOTA & ORS. [MADAN B. LOKUR, J.]
an order passed by the High Court granting time to the tenants         A
to vacate suit premises. We are mentioning this because in
these cases, the. tenants had the benefit of an interim order
passed by the High Court staying the execution of the decree
against them as well as a stay of operation of the judgments
of the Trial Court and the appellate Court. On the dismissal of        B
the proceedings by the High Court, learned counsel for the
tenants applied for continuation of the interim order for a period
of 12 weeks. He stated that the tenants would file an
undertaking along with all others using the suit property on or
before 19th November, 2013 incorporating therein the following         c
terms: (i) that they are in possession of the suit premises and
nobody else is in possession; (ii) that they have neither created
third party interests nor parted with possession; (iii) that they
will hereafter neither create third party interests nor part with
possession of the suit premises, (iv) that they will clear all         0
arrears of rent, if any, within four weeks subject to adjustment,
(v) they will not apply for extension of time, and (vi) that in case
they are unable to obtain suitable orders from this Court within
 12 weeks, they will hand over vacant and peaceful possession
of the suit premises to the landlord.
                                                                       E
     15. The tenants failed to file any such undertaking in the
High Court on or before 19th November, 2013. This was brought
to our notice by the landlord on 4th February, 2014 and we
directed the tenants to file the necessary undertaking as
ordered by the High Court within a week. We were                       F
subsequently given to understand that the undertaking was filed.

      16. These cases indicate that even though the High Court
trusts a litigant before it to comply with its orders, sometimes
a litigant does not take the High Court seriously. This is             G
unfortunate and undermines the authority of the Court. We feel
the recurrence of a situation as has happened in these cases
needs to be avoided. Therefore, the High Court would be well
advised to consider having the tenant first file an undertaking
and placed on record before granting any interim order after           H
    802     SUPREME COURT REPORTS                 (2014] 3 S.C.R.


A dismissal of the tenant's petition. Otherwise this may place the
  High Court in a difficult position where its order is flagrantly
  disobeyed, as has happened in these cases.

        17. We find no merit in these petitions and they are
8   accordingly dismissed. The interim applications are also
    dismissed.

    D.G.                                        SLPs dismissed.