Case: Mrs. Dossibai N. B. Jeejeebhoy Vs. Khemchand Gorumal And Others

2. The appellant brought these four suits in the City Civil Court. Bombay, for recovery of arrears of rent in respect of the premises mentioned in the plaint of these several suits. It is clear under the law that the City Civil Court, Bombay, would have no jurisdiction to try these suits if the provisions of Part II of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (Bombay Act No LVII of 1947), which later in this judgment we shall refer to as the "Rent Act", applied to the premises in suits. For this reason the plaintiff stated in the plaint itself that this Rent Act did not apply to the demised premises. The defendant in each case pleaded on the contrary that the Rent Act applied and so the City Civil Court had no jurisdiction to try the suits. The first issue framed in each of these suits therefore was whether the Court had jurisdiction to entertain the suit. The learned Judge held that Part II of the Rent Act applied to the premises in each of these suits and consequently only the special courts specified in Section 23 of the Rent Act had jurisdiction to entertain the suits and the City Civil Court had no jurisdiction. Accordingly, he ordered the plaint in each of the four suits to be returned to the plaintiff for presentation to the proper Court. The plaintiff appealed to the High Court of Bombay but all the four appeals were summarily dismissed. The Letters Patent appeals preferred by the plaintiff from the decision of the Single Judge were also dismissed summarily. These appeals have been preferred against that decision of the Bombay High Court in Letters Patent Appeals on special leave obtained from this Court.

Reasoning: It is subject to a proviso that the State Government may direct that in any of the said areas, this Part shall cease to apply to premises let for any of the said purposes, with a further proviso that the State Government may against direct that in any of the said areas this Part shall re-apply to premises let for such of the aforesaid purposes. As there has been no notification under these provisos affecting the premises in suit, we are not concerned with them; nor are we concerned with sub-s. (1) (a) under which the State Government may direct that this Part shall apply to premises let for any otherThe lease mentions that the lessee will construct buildings suitable for residential, business industrial or office purposes. The plaintiffs case is that as open land is not intended to be used as it is for residence or business but for construction of buildings for residence or business the land is not being let for residence oris, in our opinion, no substance in this contention.6. It is quite clear that open land as it is can be used for residence and to there is no reason to think that open land was not intended to be included in "premises" when Section 6 speaks of premises being let forare unable to accept this argument. Land can be used for many purposes. It may be used for agriculture; for residence of human beings; for keeping cattle or other animals; for holding meetings; for carrying on business or trade; for storage of goods; for supply of water by excavating tanks, and many other purposes. Many of these purposes can be achieved on the open land without the construction of any buildings. But many of them can be better achieved if some kind of structure is erected on the open land: It seems reasonable to us to think that when the Bombay Legislature took particular care to include open land not being used for agricultural purposes within the word "premises" and the went on in the very next section to speak of premises being let for several specified purposes, it was thinking of the purposes to which the land will be used irrespective of whether the purpose was intended to be achieved with or without construction of a structure. The intention in mentioning only some purposes. Viz., residence, education, business, trade or storage in Section 6 was to exclude land let for purposes like, keeping of cattle (except in the way of business or trade) and numerous other purposes to which the land may be put from the benefit of Part II of the Act.8. It seems to us that when people speak ordinarily of land being let for business, they are only thinking that the ultimate purpose behind the letting is that business will be carried on and they are not thinking whether the business will be carried on the land in its present state or by the construction of temporary sheds or by putting up permanent buildings. Similarly, when a man says that he will take lease of a plot of land for storage of his goods, what he has in mind is that by taking lease of the land he will achieve the object of storing goods, irrespective of whether for such storage he will have to put up a structure or not. In the same way, we think, that when land has been let for the purpose of constructing buildings for residence, people will say that it is being let for residence, just as they will say that the land has been let for residence if the lessee intends to use it as caravan site so that the people may live on the open land in caravans.9. In our opinion, the words "let for residence, education, business, trade or storage" are wide enough to include a letting for the achievement of these purposes with construction of buildings as also without construction ofhowever, the cases in which such difficulty will arise, if at all, would be few and far between; for, it is reasonable to expect that when taking lease of land for the construction of building intended to be let out to others for residence, the lessee of the land would take care to include in the contract of lease a term permitting him to let out the building. Assuming that there may be cases where the contract of lease does not contain any such term and assuming further that it will not be lawful for the lessee of the land to let out the building constructed by him, the probability of such difficulty in some cases, can be no reason to cut down the ordinary and reasonable connotation of the words "let for residence" in Sectionmay say however that there is in our opinion much force in the argument which found favour with the Bombay High Court in Vinayak Gopal v. Laxman Kashinath, ILR (1956) Bom 827 : (AIR 1957 Bom 94 ), where the very question which is now before us arose for decision, that the bar of Section 15 will operate only in the way of letting out the land of which lease has been taken, but will not stand in the way of letting the building constructed on thethink it unnecessary however to examine whether all the reasons given in the judgment are correct. For, as already indicated, the words "let for residence" on a proper construction would cover the case of open land being let for construction of residential buildings and so the conclusion reached by the Bombay High Court in Vinayak Gopals case, ILR (1956) Bom 827 : (AIR 1957 Bom 94 ), is, in our opinion, correct.13. It is unnecessary for us also to consider for the purpose of the present appeals as to what may happen to the sub-lessee if and when on the terms of a particular lease the building ultimately vests in the owner of the land nor as to what may happen if and when on the terms of a particular lease the lessee who has constructed the building gets the right to remove the building gets the right to remove the building. These considerations should not, in our opinion, affect the construction of the words "let for residence."14. Turning now to the facts of the present case we find that in each of these cases the lease was taken with a view to construct buildings thereon for residential, business, industrial or office purposes. The premises let are therefore "premises" to which under S. 6 (1) of the Rent Act the provisions of Part II of the Act, apply.15. The Trial Court and the High Court were therefore right in holding that the City Civil Court, Bombay, had no jurisdiction to try the suits.