Case: S. B. Noronah Vs. Prem Kumari Khanna

a residence”. If it is let out for a commercial purpose, Section 21 will not apply, whether the ritual of a sanction under that provision has been gone through or not. Thirdly, the Controller’s permission is obligatory where he specifices the particular period for which he gives permission and further qualifies the permission for use as a residence. The Controller exercises an important regulatory function on behalf of the community. The fact that a landlord and a potential tenant together apply. setting out formal ingredients of Section 21, does not relieve the Controller from being vigilant to inquire and satisfy himself about the requisites of the landlord’s non-requirement “for a particular period” and the letting itself being as a residence”. A fraud on the statute cannot be permitted especially because of the grave mischief that may be perpetrated in such event.17. It is easy to envisage the terrible blow to the rent control law if Section 21 were freely permitted to subvert the scheme of Section 14. Every landlord will insist on a tenant going through the formal exercise of Section 21, making ideal averments in terms of that Section. The consequence will be that both the Civil Procedure Code which prescribe suits for recovery of possession and the Delhi Rent Control Act which prescribes grounds for eviction will be eclipsed by the pervasive operation of Section 21. Neither grounds for eviction nor suits for eviction will thereafter be needed, and if the landlord moves the Court for a mere warrant to place the landlord, through the Court process, in vacant posession of the premises he gets it. No court-fee, no decree, no execution petition, no termination of tenancy—wish for possession and the Court is at your command. Such a horrandous situation will be the negation of the rule of law in this area. So it is that we deem it necessary to lay down the law as implied in Section 21.18. When an application under Section 21 is filed by the landlord and/or tenant, the Controller must satisfy himself by such inquiry as he may make, about the compulsive requirements of that provision. If he makes a mindless order, the Court, when challenged at the time of execution, will go into the question as to whether the twin conditions for sanction have really been fulfilled. Of course, there will be a presumption in favour of the sanction being regular, but it will still be open to a party to make out his case that in fact and in truth the conditions which make for a valid sanction were not present. We do not agree with the statement of the law by the Delhi High Court striking a contrary note. In this context, we may make special reference to Kasturi Lal’s case, a decision of the Delhi High Court reported in 1976 RCJ p. 582. It is true as Misra in that case, following earlier decisions has observed that the provisions of Section 21 are designed to meet the problem of shortage of housing in Delhi. If the landlord does not need the premises for a limited period, Section 21 permits him to lease it out during that period. Without the facility of Section 21 the landlord might have preferred to keep the premises vacant, but that does not mean that the law surrenders itself to this landlord and releases him from all conditions. That is why the need for sanction and the mandatory conditions for such sanction are specified in the Section. It is altogether wrong to import the idea that the tenant having taken advantage of induction into the premises pursuant to the permission, he cannot challenge the legality of the permission. As between unequals the law steps in and as against statutes there is no estoppel, especially where collusion and fraud are made out and high purpose is involved.19. The doctrine of estoppel cannot be invoked to render valid a proceeding, which the legislature has, on grounds of public policy, subjected to mandatory conditions which are shown to be absent;“Where a statute, enacted for the benefit of a Section of the public,imposes a duty of a positive kind, the person charged with the performance of the duty cannot by estoppel be prevented from exercising his statutory powers. A petitioner in a divorce suit cannot obtain relief simply because the respondent is estopped from denying the charges, as the Court has a statutory duty to inquire into the truth of a petition” (1)20. It is an old maxim that estoppels are odious, although considerable inroad into this maxim has been made by modern law. Even so, `a judgements obtained by fraud or collusion, even, it seems a judgment of the house of Lords, may be treated as a nullity.” (See Halsbury’s Laws of England, Vol. 16—fourth edition para 1553) the point is that the sanction granted under Section 21, if it has been procured by fraud for or collusion, cannot withstand invalidity because, otherwise, high public policy will be given as hostage to successful collusion.21. Law that non-performs stultifies the rule of law and so it is that we stress the need for strict compliance. Or else, the sanction is non est. Collusion between the strong and the weak cannot confer validity, where the mandatory prescriptions of the law are breached or betrayed. We have said enough to make the point that it is open to the tenant in the present case to plead and prove that the sanction under Section 21 is invalid, and if it is void the executing Court is not debarred from holding so. (1) Halsbury’s Laws of England, Fourth Edition p, 1019 Vol. 16.22. We, therefore, hold on the first poiint that no question of amendment arises in the present case and the application before the Controller did not suffer from any deficiency. On the second point we hold that it is perfectly open to the Controller to examine whether the sanction under Section 21 is a make-believe, vitiated by fraud and Collusion.23.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]14. Section 21 is the answer. The law seeks to persuade the owner of permises available for letting for a particular or limited period by giving him the special assurance that the expiry of that period the appointed agency will place the landlord in vacant possession. As stated earlier, the critical need was for residential, not non-residential housing. Therefore, Section 21 confines this special remedy to letting for residential uses only. Parliament had the wholesome fear that if the Section were not controlled by many conditions it might open the flood gates for wholesale circumvention of the rent control legislation by ingenious landlords exploiting the agonising need of houseless denizens.We must notice that Section 21 runs counter to the general scheme and, therefore, must be restricted severaly to its narrow sphere. Secondly, we must place accent only every condition which attracts the Section and if any one of them is absent the Section cannot apply and, therefore, cannot arm the landlord with a resistless eviction process. Thirdly, we must realise that the whole effect of Section 14 can be subverted by ritualistic enforcement of the conditions of sanction under Sce. 21 or mechanical grant of sanction therein. Section 21 overrides Section 14 precisely because it is otherwise hedged in with drastic limitation and safeguards itself against. When an application under Section 21 is filed by the landlord and/or tenant, the Controller must satisfy himself by such inquiry as he may make, about the compulsive requirements of that provision. If he makes a mindless order, the Court, when challenged at the time of execution, will go into the question as to whether the twin conditions for sanction have really been fulfilled. Of course, there will be a presumption in favour of the sanction being regular, but it will still be open to a party to make out his case that in fact and in truth the conditions which make for a valid sanction were not present. We do not agree with the statement of the law by the Delhi High Court striking a contrary note. In this context, we may make special reference to Kasturicase, a decision of the Delhi High Court reported in 1976 RCJ p. 582. It is true as Misra in that case, following earlier decisions has observed that the provisions of Section 21 are designed to meet the problem of shortage of housing in Delhi. If the landlord does not need the premises for a limited period, Section 21 permits him to lease it out during that period. Without the facility of Section 21 the landlord might have preferred to keep the premises vacant, but that does not mean that the law surrenders itself to this landlord and releases him from all conditions. That is why the need for sanction and the mandatory conditions for such sanction are specified in the Section. It is altogether wrong to import the idea that the tenant having taken advantage of induction into the premises pursuant to the permission, he cannot challenge the legality of the permission. As between unequals the law steps in and as against statutes there is no estoppel, especially where collusion and fraud are made out and high purpose is involved.It is an old maxim that estoppels are odious, although considerable inroad into this maxim has been made by modern law. Even so, `a judgements obtained by fraud or collusion, even, it seems a judgment of the house of Lords, may be treated as aLaws of England, Vol. 16—fourth edition para 1553) the point is that the sanction granted under Section 21, if it has been procured by fraud for or collusion, cannot withstand invalidity because, otherwise, high public policy will be given as hostage to successful collusion.21. Law that non-performs stultifies the rule of law and so it is that we stress the need for strict compliance. Or else, the sanction is non est. Collusion between the strong and the weak cannot confer validity, where the mandatory prescriptions of the law are breached or betrayed. We have said enough to make the point that it is open to the tenant in the present case to plead and prove that the sanction under Section 21 is invalid, and if it is void the executing Court is not debarred from holding so.We, therefore, hold on the first poiint that no question of amendment arises in the present case and the application before the Controller did not suffer from any deficiency. On the second point we hold that it is perfectly open to the Controller to examine whether the sanction under Section 21 is a make-believe, vitiated by fraud and Collusion.