SARLA AHUJAversusUNITED INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY LTD.

A                            SARLA AHUJA
                                   v.
                 UNITED !NOIA INSURANCE COMPANY LTD.                                   ,_

                                OCTOBER 27, 1998

B               [S. SAGHIR AHMAD AND K.T. THOMAS, JJ.]


          Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958:

          Section 14(1)-Proviso-Clause (e)-Scope of-Eviction-Bona fide
C   requirement-Alternative accommodation available to landlord-It is not
    enough that such accommodation is in a far different State-It must be
    available in same city or town or within reasonable proximity if outside the
    limits of city.

          Section 258(8)-Proviso-Revision-Power ofHigh Court to interfere-
D High Court should examine whether any illegality has been committed by
    Rent Controller-High Court should not come to a different finding unless
    the finding was unreasonable---Eviction order passed by Rent Controller
    taking into account relevant factors-High court upsetting the finding of
    Rent Con/roller in revision jurisdiction-Held, High Court overstepped the
E   limit of its power as a Revisional Court-Appellate and Revisional
    jurisdiclion-Distinction in scope of

           The appellant-landlady has been staying at Calcutta on the third floor
    of a flat with her son and his family. She was doing business, along with her
    son, in Patents and Trade Marks. In connection with the said business they
F   have to be in Delhi quite often. In respect of her tenanted premises at Delhi,
    she filed an eviction suit under section 14(1) (e) of the Delhi Rent Control
    Act, 1958. Reasons which persuaded her to seek recovery of tenanted premises
    were: (1) in the building where she resides at Calcutta her son and daughter-
    in-law were also living with their children; (2) she and her son have to go
G   Ill Delhi quite often and stay there for days in connection with their business;
    (3) her daughter lives in NOIDA which is on the outskirts of Delhi and it
    would be convenient for that daughter to stay with the mother frequently;
    landlady was getting old and developed orthopaedic problems and hence she
    felt that living in the ground floor was more advisable; and (5) the flat in
    which she lives at Calcutta was on the third floor whereas the tenanted
H                                         390
            SARLA AHUJA v. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD.                391
premises were on the ground floor.                                               A
      After taking into account the aforesaid broad aspects the Rent
Controller passed an eviction order holding that she bona fide requires the
tenanted premises for her occupation and she has no other suitable residential
accommodation at Delhi. A single judge of High Court non-suited her by           B
reversing the order of Rent Controller. In exercise of its revision power
under proviso to section 25B(8), the High Court reassessed and re-appraised
the evidence afresh to reach a different finding as if it was exercising
appellate jurisdiction. It held that since the landlady has possession of
another flat at Calcutta she was disentitled to seek recovery of possession
of the tenanted premises situated at Delhi.                                      c
      In appeal to this Court it was contended on behalf of the appellant-
landlady that the High Court has committed jurisdictional transgression
while exercising revisional jurisdiction by interfering with the finding of
fact made by the Rent Controller.
                                                                                 D
      Allowing the appeal, this Court

      HELD : I. The High Court has over-stepped the limit of its power as
a revisional court. The order impugned, on that score, is hence vitiated by
jurisdictional deficiency. [397-A)                                               E

      2. In legal parlance distinction between appellate and revisional
jurisdiction is well understood. Ordinarily, appellate jurisdiction is wide
enough to afford a re-hearing of the whole case for enabling the appellate
forum to arrive at fresh conclusions untrammelled by the conclusions reached
in the order challenged before it. Of course, the statute which provides         F
appeal provision can circumscribe or limit the width of such appellate powers.
Revisional power, on the contrary, is ordinarily a power of supervision
keeping subordinate tribunals within the bounds of law. Expansion or
constriction of such revision power would depend upon how the statute has
couched such power therein. In some legislation revisional jurisdiction is       G
meant for satisfying itself as to the regularity, legality or propriety of
proceedings or decisions of the subordinate court. [395-C-E)

      3. Although the word "revision" is not employed in the proviso to
Section 258(8) of the Act it is evident from the language used therein that
the power conferred is revisional power. The proviso indicates that power of H
    392                        SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1998] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A the High Court is supervisory in nature and it is intended to ensure that the
    Rent Controller conforms to law when he passes the order. The satisfaction
    of the High Court when perusing the records of the case must be confined
    to the limited sphere that the order of the Rent Controller is "according to
    the law". It is not permissible for the High Court in that exercise to come
B   to a different fact finding unless the finding arrived at by the Rent Controller
    in the facts is so unreasonable that no Rer.t Controller should have reached
    such a finding on the materials available. [394-H; 395-A-B)

          Raj Lakshmi Dyeing Works v. Rangaswamy, [1980) 4 SCC 259; Hari
    Shanker v. Rao Girdhari Lal Chowdhury, (1962) Suppl. 1 SCR 933 and
C   Malini Ayyappa Naicker v. Seth Menghraj Udhavadas, [1969) 1 SCC 688,
    referred to.

          4. The High Court in the present case has reassessed and re-appraised
    the evidence afresh to reach a different finding as though it was exercising
    appellate jurisdiction. No doubt even while exercising revisional jurisdiction,
D   a reappraisal of evidence can be made, but that should be for the limited
    purpose to ascertain whether the conclusion arrived at by the fact finding
    court is wholly unreasonable. [396-G-H; 397-A)

           5. The crux of the ground envisaged in clause (e) of Section 14(1) of
E   the Act is that the requirement of the landlord for the occupation of the
    tenanted premises must be bona fide. When a landlord asserts that he
    requires his building for his own occupation the Rent Controller shall not
    proceed on the presumption that the requirement is not bona fide. When
    other conditions of the clause are satisfied and when the landlord shows a
    prima facie case it is open to the Rent Controller to draw a presumption that
F   the requirement of the landlord is bona fide. It is often said by courts that
    it is not for the tenant to dictate terms to the landlord as to how else he can
    adjust himself without getting possession of the tenanted premises. While
    deciding the question of bonafides of the requirement of the landlord it is
    quite unnecessary to make an endeavour as to how else the landlord could
G   have adjusted himself. [398-A-C)

          6. To deprive a landlord of the benefit of the ground mentioned in
    Section 14(1) (e) on account of availability of alternative residential
    accommodation, it is not enough that such alternative accommodation is in
    a far different State. Such accommodation must be available in the same city
H   or town, or at least within reasonable proximity thereof if it is outside the
      SARLA AHUJA v. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO.LTD. [THOMAS, J.]            393
limits of the city. The said limb of clause (e) cannot be interpreted as to mean   A
that if landlord has another house anywhere in the world he cannot seek
recovery of possession of his building under clause (e). High Court therefore
went wrong in observing that since the landlord has possession of another
flat at Calcutta she is disentitled to seek recovery of possession of the
tenanted premises situated at Delhi. It has improperly exercised its revisional    B
jurisdiction in upsetting the findings of the Rent Controller. Consequently,
the impugned order is set aside and the eviction order passed by the Rent
Controller is restored. [397-F-H; 398-A; G-H; 399-A)

      CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 5213 of
lm.                                                                                c
      From the Judgment and Order dated 3.4.98 of the Delhi High Court in
C.R.P. No. 320of1997.

     Raju Ramachandran, Rajeev Sharma, Manmohan Singh and Sanjeev
Sindhwani for the Appellant.                                                       D
      Keshav Dayal, Kewal Nandwani and De basis Misra for the Respondent.

      The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

      THOMAS J. A widow wants to shift her residence from Calcutta to              E
New Delhi to occupy her own building which is presently in the possession
of her tenant-Mis United India Insurance Company Limited. Though she got
an order of eviction from the Rent Controller under Section 14(1 )( e) of the
Delhi Rent Control Act 1958 (for short "the Act"), a Single Judge of the Delhi
High Court ·non-suited her by reversing the order. She has sought for special
leave to appeal against the said decision of the High Court. Leave granted.        F

       When she filed a case before the Rent Controller her husband was alive.
By the time her case reached the stage uf evidence she became a widow, but
that did not affect her claim for eviction because it was not for the use of her
husband that the building is required. At present she is staying at Calcutta       G
in a flat with her son and his family. She. is doing busin"ess, along with her
son, in Patents and Trade Marks. In connection with the said business they
have to be in Delhi quite often. The house where she is now living in Calcutta
is on the third floor of a building which she finds it very inconvenient
particularly on account of a knee trouble which she has developed recently.
As the house in Delhi is on the ground floor of the building there would be        H
    394                         SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1998] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A no problem for climbing up the stairs. Those apart, her daughter is now
    staying at NOIDA which in on the outskirts of Delhi. The Rent Controller,
    after appraisal of the evidence, came to the conclusion that she bona fide
    requires the tenanted premises for her occupation and she has no other
    suitable residential accommodation in Delhi.

B         But learned Single Judge of the High Court made a reappraisal of the
    evidence and reached a different conclusion by observing that "it was only
    when her husband (who was carrying on the business) was alive that she
    could urge the ground of wanting to live with her husband in Delhi." Learned
    single judge pointed out that her relationship with her son and daughter-in-
c   law is cordial and that her family is settled down in Calcutta for long. According
    to her knee problem learned Single Judge noticed that she has recently moved
    into a new flat at Calcutta wherein a lift is provided and hence she need not
    much bother about that problem.

          Learned counsel for the appellant - landlord contended that the High
D Court has committed jurisdictional transgression while exercising revisional
  jurisdiction by interfering with the finding of fact made by the Rent Controller.
  We find much force in the said contention. The power which the High Court
  was exercising is envisaged in the proviso to Section 258(8) of the Act. The
  said section is one of the three provisions subsumed in Chapter IIIA of the
E Act which was added to the p ;nt Act as per Act 57/1988 for "summary trial·
  of certain applications."

          Section 258 of the Act lays down "special procedure for the disposal
    of application for eviction on the ground of bona fide requirement." Sub-
    section (I) says that every application for recovery of possession on the
F   ground specified in Section 14( I)(e) of the Act shall be dealt with in accordance
    with the procedure specified in Section 258. Sub-section (8) says that no
    appeal or second appeal shall lie against an order for the recovery of
    possession of any premises made by the Rent Controller in accordance with
    the procedure specified in this section. The proviso to that sub-section reads
    thus:
G
            "Provided that the High Court may, for the purpose of satisfying itself
            that an order made by the Controller under this section is according
            to law, call for the records of the case and pass such order in respect
            thereto as it thinks fit."

H         The above proviso indicates that power of the High Court is supervisory
      SARLA AHUJA v. UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO. LTD. [THOMAS, J.]             395
in nature and it is intended to ensure that the Rent Controller conforms to law       A
when he passes the order. The satisfaction of the High Court when perusing
the records of the case must be confined to the limited sphere that the order
of the Rent Controller is "according to the law." In other words, the High
Court shall scrutinize the records to ascertain whether any illegality has been
committed by the Rent Controller in passing the order under Section 25B. It           B
is not permissible for the High Court in that exercise to come to a different
fact finding unless the finding arrived at by the Rent Controller on the facts
is so unreasonable that no Rent Controller should have reached such a
finding on the materials available.

       Although, the word "revision" is not employed in the proviso to Section        C
25B(8) of the Act it is evident from the language used therein that the power
conferred is revisional power. In legal parlance distinction between appellate
and revisionaljurisdiction is well understood. Ordinarily, appellate jurisdiction
is wide enough to afford a re-hearing of the whole case for enabling the
appellate forum to arrive at fresh conclusions untrammelled by the conclusions        D
reached in the order challenged before it. Of course, the statute which provides
appeal provision can circumscribe or limit the width of such appellate powers.
Revisional power on the contrary, is ordinarily a power of supervision keeping
subordinate tribunals within the bounds of Jaw. Expansion or constriction of
such revisional power would depend upon how the statute has couched such
power therein. In some legislations revisional jurisdiction is meant for satisfying   E
itself as to the regularity, legality or propriety of proceedings or decisions of
the subordinate court. In Sri Raj Lakshmi Dyeing Works v. Rangaswamy,
[ 1980] 4 SCC 259 this Court considered the scope of the words ("the High
Court may call for and examine the records .. .. to satisfy itself as to the
regularity of such proceedings or the correctness, illegality or propriety of         F
any decision or order...") by which power of revision has been conferred by
a particular statute. Dealing with the contention that the above words indicated
conferment of a very wide power on the revisional authority, this Court has
observed thus in the said decision:

        "The dominant idea conveyed by the incorporation of the words to              G
        satisfy 'itself under the Section appears to be that the power conferred
        on the High Court under the Section is essentially a power of
        superintendence. Therefore, despite the wide language employed in
        the Section the High Court quite obviously should not interfere with
        findings of fact merely because it does not agree with the finding of         H
    396                       SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1998] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A          the subordinate authority."

          Dealing with Section 32 Delhi and Ajmer Rent (Control) Act, 1952,
    which is almost identically worded as in the proviso to Section 258(8) of the
    Act a three judge bench of this Court has stated thus in Hari Shankar v. Rao
    Girdhari Lal Chowdhury, [1962] Suppl 1SCR933:
B
           "The section is thus framed to confer larger powers than the power
           to correct error of jurisdiction to which S.115 is limited. But it must
           not be over-looked that the section - in spite of its apparent width of
           language where it confers a power on the High Court to pass such
           order as the High Court might think fit, - is controlled by the opening
c          words, where it says that the High Court may send for the record of
           the case to satisfy itself that the decision is "according to law." It
           stands to reason that if it was considered necessary that there should
           be a rehearing a right of appeal would be a more appropriate remedy,
           but the Act says that there is to be no further appeal."
D
          In Malini Ayyappa Naicker v. Seth Menghraj UdhJVadas, [1969] l SCC
    688 another three judge bench of this court was considering a similarly
    worded proviso in Section 75(1) of The Provincial Insolvency Act 1920.
    Though, learned judges did not give an exhaustive definition of the expression
    "according to law'', a catalogue of instance in which the High Court may
E   interfere under the said proviso was given in the decision as the following:

           "They are cases in which the Court which made the order had no
           jurisdiction or in which the Court has based its decision on evidence
           which should not have been admitted, or cases where the unsuccessful
           party has not been given a proper opportunity of being heard, or the
F          burden of proof has been placed on the wrong shoulders. Wherever
           the Court comes to the conclusion that the unsuccessful party has
           not had a proper trial according to law, then the Court can interfere."

          The bench has, however cautioned that the !"figh Court should not
G interfere merely because it considered that "possibly the Judge who heard the
    case may have arrived at a conclusion which the High Court would not have
    arrived at."

          Learned Single Judge of the High Court in the present case has
    reassessed and re-appraised the evidence afresh to reach a different finding
H   as though it was exercising appellate jurisdiction. No doubt even while
      SARLAAHUJA v. UNITEDINDIAINSURANCECO.LTD. [THOMAS,J.]                    397
exercising revisional jurisdiction, a reappraisal of evidence can be made, but         A
that should be for the limited purpose to ascertain whether the conclusion
arrived at by the fact finding court is wholly unreasonable. A reading of the
impugned order shows that the High Court has over-stepped the limit of its
power as a revisional Court. Tue order impugned, on that score, is hence
vitiated by jurisdictional deficiency.
                                                                                       B
      Clause (e) of the proviso to Section 14(1) of the Act affords one of the
grounds to the landlord to seek recovery of possession of the building
leased. The said clause reads thus:

        "(e) that the premises let for residential purposes are required bona          C
        fide by the landlord for occupation as a residence for himself or for
        any member of his family dependent on him, if he is the owner thereof,
        or for any person for whose benefit the premises are held and that the
        landlord or such person has no other reasonably suitable residential
        accommodation;
                                                                                       D
        Explanation: For the purposes of this clause 'Premises let for residential
        purposes' include any premises which having been let for use as a
        residence are, without the consent of the landlord, used incidentally
        for commercial or other purposes."
                                                                                       E
      If the landlord has another residential accommodation which is
reasonably suitable he is not permitted to avail himself of the benefit afforded
in the ground set out in the clause. Learned Single Judge of the High Court
has noted that the landlord in this case has "admitted in her deposition that
the house in Calcutta was a 3-bedroom house with drawing/dining room and
one of the bedrooms was used by her and other by her son with his wife,                F
and another bedroom was kept for her daughter who use to come and stay".
This was one of the reasons which persuaded the learned Single Judge to
interfere with the order of eviction. To deprive a landlord of the benefit of the
ground mentioned in Section 14( I)(e) on account of availability of alternative
residential accommodation, it is not enough that such alternative                      G
accommodation is in a far different State. Such accommodation must be
available in the same city or town, or at least within reasonable proximity
thereof if it is outside the limits of the city. The said limb of 'Clause (e) cannot
be interpreted as to mean that if landlord has another house anywhere in the
 world he cannot seek recovery of possession of his building under clause (e).
High Court therefore went wrong in observing that since the landlord has               H
    398                         SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1998] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A possession of another flat at Calcutta she is disentitled to seek recovery of
    possession of the tenanted premises situated at Delhi.

          The crux of the ground envisaged in clause (e) of Section 14(1) of the
    Act is that the requirement of the landlord for occupation of the tenanted
    premises must be bona fide. When a landlord asserts that he requires his
B   building for his own occupation the Rent Controller shall not proceed on the
    presumption that the requirement is not bona fide. When other conditions of
    the clause are satisfied and when the landlord shows a prima facie case it
    is open to the Rent Controller to draw a presumption that the requirement of
    the landlord in bona fide. It is often said by courts that it is not for the tenant
C   to dictate tenns to the landlord as to how else he can adjust himself without
    getting possession of the tenanted premises. While deciding the question of
    bona fides of the requirement of the landlord it is quite unnecessary to make
    an endeavour as to how else the landlord could have adjusted himself.

          Facts such as the cordial relationship between a landlord and her
D   daughter-in-law or that he is comfortably residing in the present building are
    not relevant in judging the bona fides of the claim of the landlord. Otherwise
    it would appear that landlord can think of residing in his or her own residential
    building only when cracks develop in the relationship between him and his
    other kith and kin.
E
          In this case the landlord put forth a variety of reasons which persuaded
    her to seek recovery of the tenanted premises: ( 1) That the tenanted building
    is her own and it is a residential building. (2) In the building where she now
    resides at Calcutta her son and daughter-in-law are also living with their
    children. (3) She and her son have to go to Delhi quite often and stay there
F   for days in connection with their business. (4) Her daughter is living in
    NO IDA which is on the outskirts of Delhi and it would be convenient for that
    daughter to stay with the mother frequently. (5) Landlord is getting old and
    developed orthopaedic problems and hence she feels that living in the ground
    floor is more advisable. (6) The flat in which she lives now at Calcutta is on
G   the third floor whereas the tenanted premises are on the ground floor.

           Rent Controller approved the claim of the landlord as bona fide after
    taking into account the aforesaid broad aspects. It cannot be said that the
    Rent Controller had taken into account irrelevant factors in reaching the
    conclusion. Hence the High Court has improperly exercised its revisional
H   jurisdiction in upsetting the findings of the Rent Controller.
     SARLA AHUJA v. UNITED INDIA INS URAN CE CO. LTD. [THOMAS, J.)       399
      In the result, we set aside the impugned order and restore the eviction   A
order passed by the Rent Controller and direct the respondent-tenant to
vacate from the premises on or before the expiry of three months from today.

T.N.A                                                       Appeal allowed.