IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Revision No.2093 of 2009 (O&M) Date of decision:30.04.2009 Bhupinder Kumar Jain ...Petitioner versus Mrs.Nirmal Sharma and another ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Praveen Chander Goyal, Advocate for the petitioner. ----- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. The revision is against an order dismissing an application for stay of the rent petition before the Rent Controller on the ground that the tenant applied for specific performance of a clause with the agreement of lease that provides for renewal at the option of the lessee, and the suit is pending in a Civil Court and further, that the proceedings before the Rent Controller should be stayed till the conclusion of the Civil Suit. In my view, such an application may not be possible since the Rent Controller is a persona grata and he exercises the powers under a specific enactment. A Civil Suit pending in a Civil Court cannot be tried before the Rent Controller nor can a Civil Court exercise a power of Rent Controller as such. In the action for eviction before the Rent Controller, it will be competent for the tenant to contend that the Civil Revision No.2093 of 2009 (O&M) - 2 - petition for eviction itself is not maintainable since the lessee has exercised the option for renewal of lease and an eviction action cannot be made before the conclusion of the period upto which the tenant is entitled to obtain a renewal. It is essentially a matter of defence for the tenant to take up to non-suit the petitioner and such a defence will always be permissible and the Rent Controller shall consider the same while deciding the petition for eviction. These observations shall not be considered as expressing any opinion on the merits of the case of the landlord, but it is only brought out to point out that the tenant cannot be in any way prejudiced by the fact that the Civil Suit itself is not concluded and that by the pendency of the Civil Suit, the tenant is in any way be hampered in his defence. 2. Subject to these observations granting the liberty to the tenant to take up the plea of non-maintainability of the petition for eviction, the Civil Revision is dismissed. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 30.04.2009 sanjeev