SC sets aside Delhi HC verdict asking Centre to vacate residential premises at Sujan Singh Park

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday set aside a Delhi High Court verdict asking the Centre to evict residential premises at the posh Sujan Singh Park in the national Capital.

Setting aside the High Court verdict, a bench comprising justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra held that the Central Government’s occupation of residential premises at Sujan Singh Park is not governed by the DRC (Delhi Rent Control) Act but is instead regulated exclusively by the terms of a Government grant dating back to 1945.

It also upheld the supremacy of the Government Grants Act, 1895, over the Delhi Rent Control Act of 1958 in the present case.

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

“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,” Justice Mishra, who authored the verdict, 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 verdict said.

It said 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.

Consequently, such arrangements are immune to the provisions of the DRC Act, it added.

The case dates back to a perpetual lease deed executed on April 26, 1945, by the Governor General in Council in favour of Sir Sobha Singh and Sons Pvt Ltd.

The lease concerned 7.58 acres of land for the construction of approximately 100 residential flats. Under a clause of 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.