MUMBAI, MARCH 5: The state government today filed an application before the Supreme Court asking for nine months' time to revise the Bombay Rent Control Act, which will lapse on March 31. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections and under tremendous pressure from the tenants lobby, the government had promised that the new Act would be in place well before the deadline. The application has been admitted and the matter adjourned till March 19. The petition was heard by the Chief Justice in his chamber along with Justice Kirpal and Justice Srinivasan. Attorney General Ashok Desai, who represented the government, said that the select committee could not draft the Act as most of its members were busy with electioneering. Anil Dewan represented the tenants.Newly-elected Member of Parliament Murli Deora, who had made the Rent Control Act an election issue by his aggressive campaigning, rushed to Delhi today when he learnt of the hearing and met both Desai and Dewan. In a fax from Delhi, Deora said he was happythat the matter had come up for hearing immediately after the Lok Sabha elections and that now Attorney General Desai was dealing with the case. In his election meetings Deora had targetted the government for appointing incompetent lawyers on the case. He has now demanded that the state government make public a draft of the amendments that it proposed to make in the Act. He threatened that he would join the tenants in launching an agitation if this was not done. Meanwhile, president of Federation of the Old Buildings Co-operative Housing Societies Anil Goenka said that the state government's application was an encouraging sign for lakhs of tenants in Mumbai. He is also relieved that the "government has finally woken up and engaged eminent counsels Venugopal and Attorney General Ashok Desai." He added that if the state government had done this earlier, it would have been saved the embarrassment of seeking an extension.The federation has appealed to all tenant associations to remain present in SC on March19 when the matter would come up for hearing as a show of solidarity. Chandrashekhar Prabhu of the Action Committee for Protection of Tenants' Rights, however, is not happy. He said the government had promised tenants it would file a rejoinder to its review petition before SC in which it would include all points missed earlier. President of Property Owners Association Aral Saboonchi when contacted today said she was not aware of the application by the state government and hence was not be in a position to comment.
