SC reverses Delhi HC verdict asking Centre to vacate residential premises at Sujan Singh Park near Khan Market

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the Delhi High Court’s verdict asking the Centre to evict residential premises at Sujan Singh Park near Khan Market in the National Capital.

A Bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra held that the Central Government’s occupation of residential premises at Sujan Singh Park was regulated exclusively by the terms of a 1945 government grant under the Government Grants Act, 1895, and not by the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958.

Writing the verdict for the Bench, Justice Mishra set aside the High Court’s January 8, 2020, verdict as it upheld the supremacy of the Government Grants Act, 1895, over the Delhi Rent Control Act of 1958.

The premises occupied by the government under a perpetual lease deed originating as a “Government Grant” are governed exclusively by the terms of that grant it noted. Consequently, such arrangements were immune to the provisions of the DRC Act, it said.

“In view of our categorical finding that the DRC Act has no manner of application to the present lis (litigation), the very foundation upon which the learned ARC (Additional Rent Controller) assumed jurisdiction to entertain the eviction suit by the respondent stands eroded,” the Bench said.

“The eviction proceedings, having been instituted, entertained and decided under a statutory regime alien to the legal character of the relationship between the parties, are thus vitiated at their inception. The High Court, in affirming the said course on the premise that the respondent would otherwise be left without a remedy, with respect, misdirected itself,” it said.

The existence or absence of a remedy cannot determine jurisdiction and equally, in the absence of any express stipulation in the lease deed providing for eviction on account of non-payment of rent, no such right can be inferred, the top court said.

A perpetual lease deed was executed on April 26, 1945, by the Governor General in Council in favour of Sir Sobha Singh and Sons Pvt Ltd. concerning 7.58 acres of land for the construction of approximately 100 residential flats.

Under the allotment letter, the Central Government reserved the right to have 50 per cent of the flats leased to its officials at a “fair rent”.

Over time, the government occupied several flats, servant quarters, and garages. In 1991, respondent Sir Sobha Singh and Sons filed an eviction petition alleging the government had defaulted on rent payments between 1989 and 1991.

Both the ARC and the Rent Control Tribunal ruled against the Centre which was approved by the Delhi High Court in its January 8, 2020 judgment.

However, the top court ruled that the government’s occupation was not a conventional landlord-tenant relationship under the DRC Act and instead it was a sovereign arrangement protected by the Government Grants Act, 1895.