1 WP 647/2011 abs IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 647 OF 2011 Mrs. Katie Darayus Bhathena & Anr. .. Petitioners V/s Ronald James H. Machado & Ors. .. Respondents Mr. Rashid Khan i/b Mr. Atul Damle and Ms. Kavita Shah for the petitioners. CORAM : D.G. KARNIK, J. DATE : 1ST FEBRUARY 2011 P.C. : 1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners. 2. By this petition, the petitioners challenge the judgment and order dated 1st October 2010 passed in revision by the Division Bench of the Small Causes Court, Mumbai, allowing the application of the respondents for permission to deposit the rent in the Court at the rate of Rs.64.05 p. in the trial Court. 3. The petitioners are the owners and landlords of the property. They had let out the ground floor of the property to Dena Bank. A portion of the ground floor let out to the Dena Bank was lawfully sublet by it to Mrs. Cicy Pais. The present 2 WP 647/2011 respondents are the heirs of Mrs. Pais and claim to have inherited the rights. 4. Dena Bank surrendered its tenancy of the ground floor premises but the respondents continued to be in possession of the suit premises which was a part of the total premises let out to Dena Bank. The petitioners terminated the tenancy of the respondents and demanded rent at the rate of Rs.750/- per month and filed a suit for eviction. The respondents claimed that Rs.750/- was not the standard rent of the suit premises and claimed that the standard rent would be Rs.64.05 per month. They contended that they were paying the rent at the rate of Rs.64.05 per month to Dena Bank and the petitioners were not entitled to recover rent higher than that they were paying to Dena Bank as its sub-tenant. They applied to the Small Causes Court for permission to deposit the rent at that rate. The trial Court rejected the application. However, the revisional Court allowed the application and permitted the respondents to deposit the rent at the rate of Rs.64.05 per month in the Court. That order is impugned in the present writ petition. 5. Section 25 of the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (for short “the Act”) provides that when the interest of a tenant of 3 WP 647/2011 any premises is determined for any reason, any sub-tenant to whom the premises or any part thereof have been lawfully sublet and where such sub-tenancy was subsisting on the date of commencement of the Act, such sub-tenant shall be deemed to become the tenant of the landlord on the same terms and conditions as he would have held from the tenant if the tenancy had continued. Section 25 of the Act thus provides that the sub- tenant would become a tenant of the head landlord on the same terms and conditions on which he held premises from the original tenant. Consequently, the petitioners are entitled to recover the rent at a rate at which the respondents were paying rent to their immediate landlord, i.e. Dena Bank. The revisional Court has at the interlocutory stage believed the case of the respondents that they were paying the rent of Rs.64.05 per month to the tenant, i.e. their immediate landlord. Consequently, no exception can be taken to the order passed by the revisional Court. There is no merit in the writ petition which is hereby rejected summarily. (D.G. KARNIK, J.)