2019 SCMR 627 SUPREME-COURT

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ABDUL LATIF VS PARMACIE PLUS Ss. 7(5) & 17--- eviction of tenant---Rent determined between the parties--- Scope--- Prohibition contained under S. 7(5) of the Cantonments Rent Restriction Act, 1963---Scope---Tenancy agreement was for a period of eleven months, and one of the clauses of the agreement stipulated that rent shall be increased by seven percent after every eleven months---When the period of eleven months expired and the rent became due, the tenant refused to remit rent with the seven percent increase on the basis that such increase was prohibited by S. 7(5) of the Cantonments Rent Restriction Act, 1963 ('the Act') unless a period of three years had elapsed---Held, that in the present case, seven percent increase after every eleven months of tenancy had been agreed upon between the parties, which was to be treated as the rent determined by an agreement between the landlord and tenant---Such rate of rent remained unaffected by the bar contained in S. 7(5) of the Act, which only prohibited unilateral increase within a period of three years---Only way to challenge a rate of rent agreed upon with the consent of the parties was by moving the Rent Controller to fix fair rent under the provisions of rent law and not otherwise---In the present case no application for fixation of fair rent had been moved by the tenant, therefore, the consequence of non-payment of agreed rent within the period prescribed by law would amount to commission of default in the payment of rent and would make it liable for eviction---In the present case as the tenant failed to pay the rent in terms of the agreed increase in rent agreed upon in the tenancy agreement, it was liable to be evicted---Appeal was allowed accordingly.