Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court has held that an NRI landlord can seek immediate eviction of his rented premises even though he had no intention of settling down permanently in the country.
‘‘There is no requirement that he has permanently settled in India on his return or that he has returned to India with an intention to permanently settle in the country,’’ a bench of Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P P Naolekar said while disposing of a bunch of petitions filed by some aggrieved tenants in Punjab.
The NRI could seek immediate possession of his premises for expanding his business in India or for his temporary stay or for use by his dependent, who wished to come back to India, it added.
The apex court was upholding an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had ruled that it was not necessary for an NRI to come to India personally to file a petition for eviction of his premises.
Interpreting section 13B of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, which created a special class of NRI landlords with special rights to recover immediate possession of tenanted premises, the High Court had said that the requirement—inserted by an amendment in 2001 to protect the interest of NRIs—was satisfied if he came later after the petition was filed.
It noted that an NRI landlord could seek immediate eviction by proving that he was an NRI, that he had returned to India, that he required the premises for himself or his dependent and that he was the owner of the premises for the past over five years. Though the court would presume that the NRI landlord required the premises for his personal use, the tenant had the right of rebuttal.
