Holding

A building taken on lease by the State Government is a ‘public building’ under Section 3(0) and is excluded from the Uttar Pradesh Public Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972; therefore, the landlord’s remedy is a suit for recovery of possession under general law.

Issues considered

Whether a building taken on lease by the State Government qualifies as a ‘public building’ within the meaning of Section 3(0) of the Uttar Pradesh Public Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 as amended.
Whether Section 2(1)(a) of the Act excludes such a building, rendering a suit for possession maintainable.
Whether the landlord’s remedy against a government tenant is limited to eviction proceedings under the Act or can be pursued by a civil suit.
How the 1976 amendment, the 1977 and 1983 ordinances, and the 1985 Act affect the interpretation and retrospective operation of the exclusion clause.
Whether Section 21(8) of the Act becomes redundant or otiose in view of the interpretation of the exclusion.

Legislation cited

Transfer of Property Act, 1882s. 106
U.P. Act No. 17 of 1985
U.P. Ordinance No. 11 of 1977
U.P. Ordinance No. 28 of 1983
Uttar Pradesh Public Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972s. 20, s. 21, s. 21(1), s. 21(1A), s. 21(8), s. 2(1)(a), s. 3(0)

Subjects

public buildinggovernment leaseevictionstatutory interpretationUttar Pradesh Rent Actsuit for possessionamendmentexclusion clause

Judgment

STATE OF U.P. & ANOTHER
A v.
MALIK ZARID KHALID

NOVEMBER 11, 1987

B [RANGANATH MISRA ANDS. RANGANATHAN, JJ.)

Uttar Pradesh Public Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and
Eviction) Act, 1972: Sections 2(1)(a) and 21-Buildings taken on lease
by Government-Possession for owners occupation-Remedy--
Whether only by way of suit. After May 18, 1983-Change in position- .-1...
I \
C Effect of amendments by Ordinances and U.P. Act No. 17 of 1985-
Explained.

Statutory Construction. When Courts entitled to read down the
plain language of a statutory provision.
D
The appellant-State of Uttar Pradesh, took on lease the premises
belonging to the respondent for the purpose of running a Training_
Centre. The respondent-landlord gave a notice of termination of the
tenancy under Section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act and filed a
suit for recovery of possession.
E

The appellant claimed that the suit was not maintainable and that
the respondent's remedy, if any, was only to seek eviction in the
circumstances and in the manner outlined in the Uttar Pradesh Build-
ings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972. The respon-
F dent sought to overcome this hurdle by contending that the premises in
question was not one of the classes of 'building' covered by the aforesaid
Rent Act, and in support thereof relied on the exclusion clause incorpo-
rated in Section 2(l)(a) of the Rent Act.

The appellant contended, successfully before the Additional
G District Judge, but unsuccessfully before the trial court and the High
Court, that the premises in question was not a 'public building' with the
meaning of section 3(0) read with section 2(1)(a) of the Rent Act, as
amended from July 5, 1976 and hence, the respondent's remedy for
eviction of the appellant was not by way of suit in a Civil Court.

H Dismissing the Appeal to this Court,
948
STATE OF U.P . . v MALIK ZARID 949

HELD: 1. The building in question is one taken on lease by the A
State Government and so it falls squarely within the definition of
'public building' in Section 3(0) of the. Act. It is, therefore, exempt
from the application of the Act by reasons of s. 2(1) as it stood at
the relevant time. It would follow, therefore, that the respondent's
remedy to recover possession lay under the general law and had to be
enforced by a suit for recovery of possession which is exactly what he B
has done. [955B)

-,\,
,, 1
2. Sub-sections (1), (IA) and (8) ofs. 21 have to be read together.
Though s. 2(l)(a) excluded 'public buildings' which has to interpreted to
include buildings in which the Government is only a tenant--s.2l(A)
incorporates an exception to this exclusion. "Notwithstanding anything C
contained in s. 2", it permits an application for eviction being moved
under section 2l(l)(a) of the Act by a landlord against any tenant but in
the limited circumstances set out in that sub-section viz. that the land-
lord has been in occupation of a public building but had to vacate it as
he had ceased to be in the employment of the Government, Local
Authority or Corporation. [958C-D I D

3. The landlord of a building in which the Government is a tenant
could have moved an application under s. 21(1) read with s. 21(1A).
This is what is prohibited by s. 21(8) absolutely in view of clauses (ii)
and (iv) of Explanation 1 to sub-section (1) being non-existent. S. 21(8)
makes it clear that while a landlord who is compelled to vacate a public E

-
building occupied by him due to cessation of his employment can pro-
ceed under the Act to evict any tenant occupying his property so that he
may use his own property for his residential purposes, he will not be
able to do so where his tenant is the Government, a local authority or a
public Corporation. Thus read, s. 21(8) does not become otiose or
redundant by accepting the wider interpretation ofs. 3(0). [958D-F) F

4(i) The interpretation placed by the Full Bench of the High
Court on s. 3(0) in Punjab National Bank v. Suganchand, [1985) l ARC
214 equates the position under the statute after the amendment of 1976
to the position both as it stood prior to the 1976 amendment and also as
it stood after the 1983 Ordinance. Such an approach fails to give any G
effect at all to the change in language deliberately introduced by the
1976 amendment. [956H; 957A)

(ii) Prior to the amendment, only buildings of which the Govern-
ment was owner or landlord were excluded from the Act. But the LegiS'-
lature clearly intended a departure from the earlier position. If the H
950 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1988) 1 S.C.R.

intention was merely to extend the benefit to premises owned or let out
A by public corporation, it could have been achieved by simply adding
a reference to such corporations in s. 2(1)(a) and (b) as they stood
earlier. [957A-B)

(iii) Reading s. 2(1)(a) & (b) as they stood before amendment and
B the definition ins. 3(0) side by side, the departure in language is so wide
and clear that it is impossible to ignore the same and hold that the new
definition was just a re-enactment of the old exemption. [957B-C)

(iv) The amendment significantly omitted the crucial words pre-
sent in the earlier legislation which had the effect of restricting the '
exclusion to tenancies created by the Government, either as owner or as ·~
c landlord. [957D I

(v) Though the Ordinance of 1977 made its amendment retros-
pective from 5. 7. 76, these later amendments are all specifically given
effect to from 18.5.1983. The effect of the decisions rendered remained
o untouched till then. The fact that the 1976 amendment marked a
departure from the more restricted exclusion available earlier and the
fact that the said restricted exclusion was again restored with effect
only from 18.5.1983 militate against the correctness of adhering to a
narrow interpretation even during the interregnum from 5.5.1976 to
18.5.1983. [957F-G) )--"· ·
E
(vi) Full effect must therefore be given to the new definition in s.
3(0) and to the conscious departure in language in reframing the
exclusion. [959D]

5. There are situations in which Courts are compelled to subordi-
F nate the plain meaning of statutory language. Not unoften, Courts do
read down the plain language of a provision or give it a restricted ~I
meaning, where, to do otherwise may be clearly opposed to the object
and scheme of the Act or may lead to an absurd, illogical or unconstitu-
tional result. [959D-E]

G 6. This mode of construction is not appropriate in the context of
the present legislation for a number of reasons. In the first place, such
an interpretation does not fit into the legislative history. It does not r
explain why the legislature should have, while enacting the 1976 amend-
ment, omitted certain operative words and used certain wider words
instead. Secondly, the Rent Act is a piece of legislation which imposes
H certain restrictions on a landlord and confers certain protections on a
STATE OF U.P. . v MALIK ZARID !RANGANATIJAN, J.] 951

tenant. Thirdly, while it is true that the result of the interpretation this A
Court favours would be to facilitate easy eviction of Government, local
authorities and public corporations, there is nothing per se wrong about
it because, with their vast resources or capacity to augment their re-
sources, these bodies would not be in as helpless a position as ordinary
tenants for whose benefit the legislation is primarily intended.
Fourthly, the legislature has applied its mind to the situation more than B
once. If its intention in carrying out the amendment had been misun-
derstood by the High Court or found ambiguous, the legislature was
expected to rectify the situation by a piece of retrospective or declarat-
c ory legislation. The 1')77 Ordinance was, but the later Ordinances and the
1985 Act, are not , of this nature. They neither are, nor purport to be,
declaratory or retrospective from 5.7.76. At least, if the 1985 Act had C
been made retrospective from 5. 7. 76, one could have thought it was a
clarificatory piece of legislation. But the Legislature has advisedly given
these enactments effect only from 18.5.1983. This means that the
amendment of 1976 was intended to be effective between 5. 7. 76 and
18 .5 .83 and it also means that the amendment of 1983 onwards is not
intended to be read back for that period. Lastly, the interpretation this D
Court favours will create no lasting difficulties for the Government and
other organisations which are tenants only, since after 18.5.1983 they
will be in a position to claim all the immunities available to other
tenants under the Act. [959E-G; 960B-G]

Punjab National Bank v. Sugan Chand, [1985) 1 ARC 214 over- E
ruled.

' CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 2981
pf 1987.

From the Judgment and Order dated 23.1.1985 of the Allahabad F
• High Court in Civil Revision No. 155 of 1984.

Anil Dev Singh and Mrs. Sbobha Dikshit for the Appellants.

Anil Kumar Gupta for the Respondent.
G
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

-( RANGANATHAN, J. Specialleave granted.

This is an appeal to this Court from the judgment of a Single
Judge of the Allahabad High Court in a civil revision petition filed by H
952 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1988] 1 S.C.R.

the appellant (C.R.P. 155 of 1984). The result of the judgment was to ~
A restore a decree passed against the appellant by the trial court in a suit
for eviction instituted by the respondent in 1980. The main ground on
which the appellant had resisted the suit was that the suit was barred
by the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Public Buildings (Regulation of
Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 (which we shall hereinafter
B briefly refer to as 'the Rent Act'). It is the correctness of this ground of
defence that it in issue in this appeal. ~

The appellant, the State of Uttar Pradesh, took on lease a pre-
mises at Barabanki belonging to the respondent for the purpose of
running a Laprosy Training Centre. The respondent was thus the land-
lord, and the appellant the tenant, in respect of the premises within the .),
c meaning of s. 3(a) of the Rent Act. This Act has been enacted "to '
provide, in the interests of the general public, for the regulation of
letting and rent of, and the eviction of tenants from, certain classes of
buildings situated in urban areas, and for matters connected there-
with." Section 20 of the Act bars the institution of a suit for the
D eviction of a tenant, notwithstanding the termination of his tenancy,
except on the grounds specified in sub-section (2) of that section but
none of these grounds were pleaded by the respondent. S. 21 of the
Act enables a prescribed authority to order the eviction of a tenant in
two situations, subject to certain conditions and limitations. These
situations are: (a) where the landlord requires the premises for his own Y
E use and (b) where, the building being in a dilapidated condition, he
desires to demolish the same and put up a new construction. These
situations also do not prevail here. The Landlord, however, gave a
notice of termination of tenancy under s. 106 of the Transfer of Pro-
perty Act and filed a suit for recovery of possession. The appellant
claimed that the suit was not maintainable and that the respondent's
F remedy, if any, was only to seek eviction in the circumstances and in
the manner outlined in the Act.

The respondent sought to overcome this hurdle by contending'-~
I 4
that the premises in question are not one of the classes of buildings
covered by the Rent Act. In support of this contention, he relied upon
G an exclustion clause incorporated in s. 2( l)(a) of the Act. Since the
whole case turns on a proper interpretation of this clause and since the
clause has undergone changes from time to time, it is necessary to
refer to these in some detail to facilitate a proper appreciation of the )"
stands of the parties.

H (a) In the Rent Act, as originally enacted and brought into force
STATE OF U.P . .v MALIK ZARID [RANGANATIIAN, J.] 953

on 15. 7. 1972, this sub-section ran thus: A

"Nothing in this Act shall apply to-

(a) any building belonging to, or vested in, the Govern-
ment of any State or any local authority; or B

(b) any tenancy created by grant from the State Govern-
ment or the Government of India in respect of a building
taken on lease or requisitioned by such Government."

' ( . (b) U .P. Act No. 28 of 1976 amended S. 2(1) to substitute new
,..,·>-~
clauses in place of the above clauses. The amended sub-section, C
insofar-as is relevant for our present purposes, reads thus:

"Nothing in this Act shall apply to-

(a) any public building; or D
(b) any building belonging to or vested in a recognised
educational institution, the whole of the income from
which is utilised for the purposes of such institution;

(c) x x x x E

.... (d) x

(e) x
x

x
x

x

.. 'r (f) x x x

A definition of 'public building' was inserted ins. 3 which reads:
x F

'
"( o) 'public building' means any building belonging to or
taken on lease or requisitioned by or on behalf of the
Central Government or a State Government (includ- G
ing the Government of any other State) and includes
any building belonging to or taken on lease by or on
behalf of any local authority or any public sector
corporation".

These amendments were made effective from 5.7.1976. H
954 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1988] 1 S.C.R.

A (c) It appears that the above provisions were sought to be ~
amended by U.P. Ordinance No. 11 of 1977 (promulgated on
27.4.1977) with retrospective effect from 5.7.1976 by substituting the
following as clause (a) of s. 2( 1) of the Rent Act:

"2(1)(a) any building of which the Government or a local
B authority or a public sector Corporation is the landlord."

S. 3(0) was left unamended. However, the above Ordinance was
allowed to lapse. Thus the amendment had become inoperative by the
time the suit in the present case was instituted.

(d) The next amendment of the Rent Act was by U.P.
C Ordinance No. 28 of 1983 promulgated on 18.5.1983. This revived the
amendment made by the 1977 Ordinance which had been allowed to
lapse. This time this amendment was not allowed to lapse on the expiry
of the ordinance but was kept alive by five successive Ordinances:
No. 43 of 1983 dated 12. 10.83, No. 6 of 1984.dated 24.3.84, No. 8 of
f) 1984 dated 7.5.84, No. 20 of 1984 dated 22.10.84, and finally no. 9 of
1985 dated 26.4.85. All these amendments were made effective from
18.5.1983 in so far as the provision presently under consideration is
concerned. The last of these, it may be noted, was promulgated subse-
quent lo the judgment of the High Court presently under appeal. •.').--'-

lE (e) Finally, the U.P. Legislature enacted Act No. 17 of 1985 on
20.8.85 "regularising" the spate of legislation by ordinances. By ss. 1
and 2 of this Act, the amendment made to s. 2(l)(a) by the 1977 ..,...:....
Ordinance and kept alive by the Ordinance of 1983 and 1984 was made
effective from 18.5. 1983.

F In this legislative background, the appellant contended, success- --..!_
fully before the Additional District Judge but unsuccessfully before )
the trial court and High Court, that the premises in question was not a
'public building' within the meaning of s. 3(o) read withs. 2(I)(a) of
the Rent Act, as amended from 5.7.76 and, hence, the respondent's
remedy for eviction of the appellant was not by way of suit in a civil
G court. What is the correct interpretation of this clause? This is the
question before us.

We have set out above the definition of 'public building' in
s. 3( o) after the 1976 amendment. The language of this definition is
very wide. lt takes in three categories of buildings: (i) buildings be-
H longing to (that is, owned by) the Central or State Government; (ii)
STATE OF U.P . . v MALIK ZARID [RANGANA1HAN, J.) 955

\-1 buildings (not belonging to the Government) but taken on lease or A
requisitioned by it or on its behalf and (iii) buildings belonging to or
taken on lease by or on behalf of any local authority or any public
sector corporation. In the present case, the building in question is one
taken on lease by the State Government and so it falls squarely within
the definition of 'public building'. It is, therefore, exempt from the
application of the Act by reason of s. 2(1) as it stood at the relevant B
~ time. It would follow, therefore, that the respondent's remedy to re-

.. cover possession lay under the general law and had to be enforced by a
suit for recovery of possession which is exactly what he has done .
Prima facie, therefore, the trial Judge and the High Court were right in
decreeing his suit.
~.
,..! • c
It is, however, contended on behalf of the appellant thats. 3(o)
should not be given such a wide meaning. The argument runs thus:
The intention of the Legislature was to exclude from the purview of
the Rent Act only buildings in respect of which the Government was
either the owner or the landlord. This is clear from the previous
history as well as the subsequent legislations. U.P. Act No. 3 of 1947 D
(which preceded the 1972 Act) was amended by Ordinance No. 5 of
1949 with effect from 26.9.49 to exclude from its purview "any pre-
mises belonging to the Central or State Government and any tenancy
or other like relationship created by a grant from the Government in
-"-/ respect of premises taken on lease or requisitioned by the Govern-
ment". The language s. 2( l)(a) of the Rent Act, as it stood before its E
amendment in 1976, left no doubt in any one's mind that the legisla-
lure intended only to exclude buildings belonging to the Government
or any local authority and those taken on lease or requisitioned by
Government and rented out by it to others. The only object of the 1976
amendment was to extend the above exclusion also in buildings owned

r- or let out by local authorities and public sector corporations. This was F
sought to be done by providing that the Act would not apply to 'public
buildings' and inserting a definition of that expression ins. 3(o). That
definition was, no doubt, phrased somewhat broadly. But, having re-
gard to the previous history as well as the language of the subsequent
legislation already referred to above, there can be no doubt that the
legislature never intended to exclude the operation of the Rent Act G
vis-a-vis premises of which the Government (and, hereinafter, this
expression will take in also a reference to local authorities and public
-{
corporations) was neither the owner nor the landlord but merely a
tenant.

Support of the above restricted construction is also sought from H
956 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1988] 1 S.C.R.

the phraseology of s. 21(8) of the Rent Act. As has been mentioned jo../
A earlier. s. 21 empowers the prescribed authority, on an application
from a landlord, to evict a tenant on two grounds:

(a) need of the premises by him for his selfoccupation; and

B (b) need to demolish the building and reconstruct it.

Sub-section (8) enacts a restriction in respect of the first of these
grounds. It reads:

"(8) Nothing in clause (a) of sub-section (a) shall apply to
c
a building let out to the State Government or to a >-f _
local authority or to a public sector corporation or to
a recognised educational institution unless the Pres-
cribed Authority is satisfied that the landlord is a
person to whom clause (ii) or clause (iv) of the Expla-
nation to sub-section (1) is applicable."
D
It is submitted that this sub section places it beyond doubt that the Act
does apply also to buildings in which a State Government, local
authority, public sector Corporation or recognised educational institu-
tion is a tenant and proceeds to restrict the scope of an application
under s. 21 of the Act in such cases. It is pointed out that, if the y-
E definition ins. 3(o) is given a wide meaning so as to exclude from the
application of the Act even buildings in which these bodies are mere
tenants, the result would be to render s. 21(8) redundant and otiose.
';c-
Such a construction of the statute, it is submitted, should not be
favoured.

F The above line of argument found favour with a Full Bench of
the Allabahad High Court dealing with a batch of petitions filed by a ··~
number of public sector corporations resisting suits for eviction
instituted against them: Punjab National Bank v. Suganchand, (1985] 1
A.R.C. 214. This Full Bench decision was rendered on 29.11.84 but was
apparently not available to the learned Judge who decided the present
G case on 23 .1. 85. Learned oounsel for the appellant urges that we should
approve of the Full Bench decision and reverse the judgment under appeal.

We are unable to accept the appellant's contention. The inter-
,..
pretation placed by the Full Bench of the High Court on s. 3( o)
equates the position under the statute after the amendment of 1976 to
H the position both as it stood prior to the 1976 amendment and also as it
STATE OF U.P . . v MALIK ZARID [RANGANATIIAN, J.) 957
\~ stood after the 1983 Ordinance. Such an approach fails to give any
A
effect at all to the change in language deliberately introduced by the
1976 amendment. No doubt, prior to the amendment, only buildings
of which the Government was owner or landlord were excluded from
the Act. But the Legislature clearly intended a departure from the
earlier position. If the intention was merely to extend the benefit to
premises owned or Jet out by public corporations, it could have been B
1 achieved by simply adding a reference to such corporations in

--
s. 2(1)(a) and (b) as they stood earlier. Readings. 2(1)(a) & (b) as
they stood before amendment and the definition ins. 3(o) side by side,
the departure in language is so wide and clear that it is impossible to
' ignore the same and hold that the new definition was just a re-
>.-. enactment of the old exemption. The exclusion was earlier restricted
,.. I
to buildings owned by the Government and buildings taken on lease or
c
requisitioned by Government and granted by it by creating a tenancy
in favour of some one. The amendment significantly omitted the
crucial words present in the earlier legislation which had the effect of
restricting the exclusion to tenancies created by the Government,
either as owner or as landlord. Full effect must be given to the new n
definition in s. 3(o) and to the conscious departure in language in
reframing the exclusion.

The subsequent legislation also reinforces the same conclusion.
-'--(
The 1976 amendment had come up for judicial interpretation and cer-
tain decisions. referred to in the Full Bench decision as well as the E

--
judgment presently under appeal had given the above literal interpre-
talion to s. 3(o). If they had run counter to the rule legislative intent,
one would have expected the repeated Ordinances since 1983 and the
ultimate Amendment Act of 1985 to have placed the position beyond
doubt by a retrospective amendment. Though the Ordinance of 1977

r- made its amendment retrospective from 5.7.76, these later amend- F
ments are all specifically given effect to from 18.5.1983. The effect of
the decisions rendered remained untouched till then. The fact that the
the 1976 amendment marked a departure from the more restricted exclu-
sion available earlier and the fact that the said restriction exclusion was
again restored with effect only from 18.5.1983 militate against the
correctness of adhering to this narrow interpretation even during the G
interregnum from 5.5.1976 to 18.5.1983 .
..,
It may now be considered whether the above interpretation
renders s. 21(8) redundant. As pointed out by the Full Bench of the
High Court, not much thought has gone into the framing of this sub-
section which has failed to notice that clauses (ii) and (iv) of the H
958 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [ 1988] 1 S.C.R.

Explanation to sub-section (!) which are referred to in it, had been
A
omitted by an earlier clause of the same section of the same Act. The
Ordinance of 1977 sought to remedy this position by deleting the
words "unless the Prescribed Authority is satisfied .... is applicable"
used in the sub-section but this Ordinance was allowed to lapse and the
subsequent Ordinances and Amendment Act paid no heed to s. 21(8).
a Nevertheless, despite this clumsy drafting, one would certainly hesi-
tate to give an. interpretation to the definition clause in s. 3(0) which
may have the effect of rendering this sub-section otiose. But luckily
that is not the position. As pointed out by counsel for the respondent,
sub-sections (1), (lA) and (8) of s. 21 have to be read together.
Though s. 2(1)(a) excludes public buildings-which we have inter-
preted to include buildings in which the Government is only a tenant-
c s.2 l(lA) incorporates an exception to this exclusion. "Nothwithstand-
ing anything contained in s. 2", it permits an application for eviction
being moved under section 21(1)(a) of the Act by a landlord against
any tenant but in the limited circumstance set out in that sub-section
viz. that the landlord has been in occupation of a public building but
D had to vacate it as he had ceased to be in the employment of the
Government, local authority or Corporation. In other words, the land-
lord of a building in which the Government is a tenant 'could have
moved an application under s. 2l(l)(a) read withs. 21(1A). This is
what is prohibited bys. 21(8) absolutely in view of clauses (ii) and (iv)
of Explanation 1 to sub-section (1) being non-existent. S. 21(8) makes
E it clear that while a landlord who is compelled to vacate a public
building occupied by him due to cessation of his employment can
proceed under the Act to evict any tenant occupying his property so
that he may use his own property for his residential purposes, he will
not be able to do so where his tenant is the Government, a local
authority or a public Corporation. Thus read, s. 21(8) does not become
F otiose or redundant by accepting the wider interpretation of s. 3(o).
This objection of the appellant is not, therefore, tenable.

The Full Bench of the High Court has referred to one general
aspect which appears to have considerably influence it in preferring a
narrower interpretation of s. 3(o). It referred to the increasing
G difficulties faced even by Government and other public bodies in
securing proper accommodation for their functioning and the near-
impossibility, even for them, of securing alternative accommodation at
comparative and non-exorbitant rates once they are compelled to
vacate their existing tenancie~. The Court posed to itself the question
whether the Legislature can be said to have intended to exclude them
H from the benefits of the Act and throw them open to eviction by suits
\
'
, STATE OF U.P. . v MALIK ZARID lRANGANATHAN. J.]

following a mere termination of tenancy by notice u.ls. 106 of the A
959

I
Transfer of Property Act, at the mere whim and caprice of their land-
lords. This, the Court thought, was unlikely particularly when, prior to
the Amendment Act of 1976, as well as subsequent to 1983, they could
have been evicted only on one or other of the grounds available under
S. 20 or S. 21 of the Act and more so because the Amendment
manifests an intention to extend to public corporations benefits previ- B
ously available only to a Government and to a local authority. The
object of the exclusion ins. 2(1)(a), it is said, was to remove, in respect
of buildings where the government or local authority was the landlord
either as a owner or principal lessee or requisitioning authority the
shackles imposed on other landlords but not to deprive these bodies,
when they are mere tenants, of the protection available to other ten-
ants under Act. Having regard to these considerations, the Full Bench C
of the High Court has invoked a line of decisions of this Court and
others which advocate that, in certain situations, importance should be.
attached to the "thrust of the statute" rather than to the literal mean-
ing of the words used to justify their refusal to give the words of s. 3( o)
full effect. D

It is true that there are situations in which Courts are compelled
to subordinate the plain meaning of statutory language. Not unoften,
Courts do read down the plain language of a provision or give it a
restricted meaning, where, to do otherwise may be clearly opposed the
object and scheme of the Act or may lead to an absurd, illogical or E
unconstitutional result. But we think that this mode of construction is
not appropriate in the context of the present legislation for a number
of reasons. In the first place, such an interpretation does not fit into
the legislative history we have traced earlier. It does not explain why
the legislature should have, while enacting the 1976 amendment, omit-
ted certain operative words and used certain wider words instead. As F
we have pointed out earlier, if the idea had only been to add to the
exclusion buildings owned or let out by public sector corporations, that
result could have been achieved by a minor amendment to s. 2(1)(a) as
it stood earlier. A conscious and glaring departure from the previous
language must be given its due significance. Secondly, the Rent Act is
a piece of legislation which imposes certain restrictions on a landlord G
and confers certain protections on a tenant. It could well have been
intention of the legislature that the Government, local bodies and
public sector corporations should be free not only from the restrictions
they may incur as landlords but also that they need not have the
protection given to other ordinary tenants. To say that the legislature
considered the Government qua landlord to be in a class of its own and H
960 SUPREME COURT REPORTS i"88) I S.C.R. ~
hence entitled to immunity from the restrictions of the Act but that,
A qua tenant, it should be on the same footing as other tenants will be an
interpretation whic!l smacks of discrimination. The legislature could
have certainly intended to say that the Governm€nt, whether landlord
or tenant, should be outside the Act. Thirdly, while it is true that the
result of the interpretation we favour would be to facilitate easy evic-
B tion of Government, local authorities and public corporations, there is
nothing per se wrong about it because, with their vast resources or
capacity augment their resources, these bodies would not be in as
helpless a position as ordinary tenants for whose benefit the legislation
is primarily intended. On the other hand, the ultimate result of the
interpretation accepted by the Full Bench will be to practically deny a
landlord, who has given his premises on rent to these bodies, any ·-
c remedy to get back possession of his premises. The contingencies for
which eviction is provided for in s. 20 are hardly likely to arise in the
case of such tenants; S. 21( l)(a) is taken out bys. 21(8); and, virtually,
the only ground on which eviction can be sought by a landlord of such
a building against such a tenant, on the interpretation urged by the
D petitioner, would be the one contained ins. 21(1)(b). It is debatable
whether the legislature could have contemplated such a situation
either. Fourthly, in this case, the legislature has applied its mind to the
situation more than once subsequently. If its intention in carrying out
the amendment had been misunderstood by the High Court or found
ambiguous, the legislature was expected to rectify the situation by a
IC piece of retrospective or declaratory legislation. The 1977 Ordinance
was, but the later Ordinances and the 1985 Act, are not, of this nature.
They neither are, nor purport to be, declaratory or retrospective from
5. 7. 76. At least, if the 1985 Act had been made retrospective from
5.7.76, one could have thought it was a clarificatory piece of legisla-
tion. But the Legislature has advisedly given these enactments effect
F only from 18.5.1983. This means that the amendment of 1976 was
intended to be effective between 5.7.75 and 18.5.83 and it also means
that the amendment of 1983 onwards is not intended to be read back
for that period. Lastly, in any event, the interpretation given by us will
create no lasting difficulties for the Government and other organisa-
tions which are tenants only, since after 18.5.1983 they will be in a
G position to claim all the immunities available to other tenants under
the Act.
For the reasons discussed above, we overrule the decision of the
Full Bench of the Allahabad High Court in Punjab National Bank v.
Sugan Chand, [1985] 1 A.R.C. 214 on this point. In the result, this
appeal is dismissed. We, however, make no order regarding costs.
H
N .V .K. Appeal dismissed.