The Court of Munsiff Pampore presided by Touseef Ahmad Magray on 02nd September, 2024 decided two Eviction Suits which were pending for last 10 years in favour of the Landlord with the findings that the Tenant cannot hold the rented premises in Perpetuity. The cases pertained to Two Shops situated in a shopping complex on a patch of land opposite Hamdania Masjid Kadlabal Pampore, District Pulwama. The Landlord had given these shops on rent to the Tenants in the Year 1993 for a period of five years. Subsequently, the Tenants had refused to vacate the said shops and the suits were filed by the Landlord. The plea taken by the Tenants was that the patch of land on which these two shops are situated is a State Land and as such the Landlord cannot assert his ownership on that piece of land.
The Court of Munsiff Pampore while quoting from the judgments of Hon’ble Supreme Court on the subject held that “In an Eviction Suit the court is not supposed to return a finding with regard to the title of the landlord over the premises (shop) but rather has to confine itself to return a finding with respect to existence of landlord/tenant relationship between the parties and existence of grounds on which the landlord has sought tenant’s eviction under the relevant law. The court further observed that question of title is not germane for the decision of eviction suit.”
Further, the court concluded that there exists a landlord-tenant relationship between the parties and the defendant in the instant case has committed the default of payment of rent besides the Landlord requires the premises for his own use and his economic condition is weaker then the Tenant and accordingly disposed off both the suits with the direction that the Tenants have to vacate the shops within a period of two months from the date of judgment and also to clear the pending rent. Further, the court observed that passing of this judgment will not confer any ownership rights on the landlord pertaining to the land beneath the shop and at the same time it will not act as a bar for any eviction proceedings which the Competent Authority/Revenue Department might have initiated against the Landlord pertaining to said land under the due process of law
