M A I N   N E W S

Changes in urban rent Act
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, March 13 — The Punjab Council of Ministers, which met here this morning, has approved the proposed changes in the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949.

Most of the proposed changes weigh in favour of landlords.

In an official statement, the Punjab Government said that the original legislation was basically designed to save the urban tenants from any possible exploitation of the land owner. But experience showed that the original legislation left many grey areas which neither fully protected the interests of tenants nor those of the owners.

It has now been proposed that the base date for calculation of rent and its revision will be January 26, 1950, or the date of occupation whichever is later. If there is a clause in the rent deed or tenancy agreement fixing the rate or quantum of increase of the rent, the same will be binding on the parties.

In other cases the basic rent in relation to the base date will increase 20 per cent every five years for residential buildings or rental land and 30 per cent every five years for non-residential buildings. In the face of new tenancies, the rent payable by a tenant shall be recorded in the tenancy agreement.

It has been proposed that the registration of tenancy agreement shall be made compulsory. Default for non-payment of rent for more than two months will be condoned only once. Any tenant making default for the second time will be liable to eviction.

It has been also proposed that besides the existing grounds of eviction as given in Section 13 of the East Punjab Restriction Act, where a tenant, his or her spouse living with him or dependent son/daughter, has acquired building in the same urban area by way of construction, purchase or allotment on higher purchase basis, he shall be liable to eviction within one year from the date of getting possession of the building so acquired.

Further in view of the judgement of the Supreme Court in civil appeal No 4574 of 1995 (Harbilas Rai v/s State of Punjab) restoring the right of landlord to obtain possession of a non-residential building rented out by him if he required it for his own use, necessary amendments will be carried out accordingly.

It has also been proposed to amend Section 13 (A) of the Act of to provide right to recover immediate possession of residential and non-residential buildings by NRIs returning to India for permanent residences as well as retiring and retired employees of the central and state governments, armed forces within one year prior to or within one year after the date of their retirement and persons above the age of 65 years and widows (residential buildings only).

It has also been provided that any person availing this facility will not be allowed to transfer it through sale or any other means or rent it out for a period of at least three years. The agreed tenancy period through registered agreement shall be specific and a tenant shall be liable to be evicted thereafter under immediately possession provisions except the way of mutual consent.

In an endeavour to streamline the judicial procedure, it has been proposed to provide a separate structure for adjudicating all disputes between landlords and tenants in the form of Rent Authority and the Rent Tribunals etc. To avoid the multiplicity of litigation, the Rent Authority while ordering eviction of a tenant, may simultaneously pass a decree for arrears of rent, interest etc.

It has also been proposed that the upper side of the roof of rented building will not form a part of the rented premises and a landlord will have the right to construct additional accommodation on the roof. Further the Rent Authority on request from the landlord may place the landlord in possession of such vacant land from the rented building if the authority is satisfied that the severance of the rented land will not cause undue hardship to the tenant.

The Council of Ministers decided to rationalise the setting up of purchase centres for the procurement of foodgrains. To avoid unnecessary expenditure, such centres should be set up strictly on need basis. About Rs 4100 crore would be required for the procurement of paddy. The Council of Ministers have granted exemption of sales tax on a CD produced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Mahatma Gandhi.