INTRODUCTION

SHELTER IS one of the basic necessities for human living apart from food and clothing.
The problem of housing is more acute in the developing countries as compared to
developed ones. The population explosion in these countries, lack of proper planning for
development, unsystematic tackling of growth issues, neglect of education, etc., have
significantly contributed towards the present state of affairs that more than half of the
population remains without proper shelter even 'when we are on the verge of entering into
the twenty-first century. In India, apart from the above reasons, the various Rent Acts
operative in different states of the Union have singularly contributed in a big way towards
the collosal failure in providing a proper shelter for every citizen.

As long as a building is enjoying exemption from the operation of the Rent Act,
popularly known as 'Rent Holiday', the landlord-tenant relationship is governed by the
Transfer of Property Act 1882. Once the leased premises fall within the purview of the
Rent Act, the tenant acquires the states of a statutory tenant. As a statutory tenant, he is
covered by the protective umbrella of the Rent Act.1

The present Act i.e. Punjab Rent Act, 1995 has changed the concept of "controlling" to
"regulation" of the landlord tenant relationship. The Punjab Rent Act, 1995 although received
the assent of the President of India on 26th March, 1998 but was published in the Punjab
Government Gazette dated 10th October, 2012 due to certain reasons. With an aim to provide
this basic shelter and with a sense of duty towards those who do not have premises for
residential or other purposes, this act was passed. Further, to formalise the rent structure and
bringing some dispute resolution mechanism between the landlord and the tenant is the main
objective of this Act.

Also, the constitutional validity of this Act was challenged in the case of Bar Council of
Punjab & Haryana v. State of Punjab 2 on the ground of violation of the constitutional
mandate of separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive and in this regard
reliance was placed on the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Namit Sharma v.
Union of India3. During the proceedings an amendment was made for conferring the powers
of Rent Authorities and Rent Tribunals on the Judicial Officers instead of Sub Divisional
1
http://14.139.60.114:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/17690/1/010_The%20Punjab%20Rent%20Act_A
%20Trend%20Setter%20(67-82).pdf
2
Civil Writ Petition No. 25507 of 2013
3
2012 AIR SCW 5523
Officers etc. and was notified on 29 th August, 2014. Hence, the Writ Petition became in
fructuous and was disposed off.

EVICTION- MEANING

Eviction means ‘to recover property from any one by judicial process’ according to Murray’s
Dictionary. An extract from lit early English case has been used in Stroud’s Judicial
Dictionary to say that eviction is not confined to mere compulsion as it was formerly
understood but ‘something of a more permanent character done by the landlord with the
intention of depriving the tenant of the enjoyment of the whole or part of demised premises’.
“In its original and technical meaning, it is an expulsion by the assertion of a paramount title
and by process of law; a recovery of land etc. by form of law; a lawful dispossession by
judgment of law and an ouster; an act of the landlord with the intention and having the effect
of depriving the tenant of the enjoyment of the demised premises. The term is now popularly
applied to every class of expulsion" says Iyer in his Law Lexicon. In Wharton’s Law Lexicon
eviction is defined as ‘dispossession; also a recovery of land etc. by form of law.”

In Ram Lubhaya v. Dhani Ram4, it has been observed that it is evident that the: eviction is not
confined in its meaning, to the "act .of expulsion, but may, in its more modern .sense be
extended so as to cover the whole process by which recovery of the property is obtained at
law.
In Ram Prasad v. Mukhtiar Chand5, it was observed' that “evict literally” 'means 'expel by
legal process’. Eviction consists in the physical act of throwing out the tenant from the
building which he is occupying”. It has further been pointed out in this case that the phrase
‘in accordance with the provisions of this section’ means in the method or; mode provided by
this section, that is, by means of obtaining an order for eviction from the Controller. This
would mean that the eviction shall not take place except when it is in accordance with the
provisions, of Section 13 of the East Punjab urban Rent Restriction Act 1949. Thus the term
eviction, in the context of landlord-tenant relationship would mean to recover or take back
the possession or user of the tenanted premises by judicial process provided under the Rent
Act.

4
AIR 1947 Lah. 296
5
(1958)60 P.L.R- 332