Baburao Shantaram More Vs. The Bombay
Housing Board & ANR [1953] INSC 89 (18 December 1953)
DAS, SUDHI RANJAN SASTRI, M. PATANJALI (CJ)
BOSE, VIVIAN HASAN, GHULAM JAGANNADHADAS, B.
CITATION: 1954 AIR 153 1954 SCR 572
CITATOR INFO :
R 1967 SC1581 (8,19,21) MV 1974 SC2009 (3,23)
D 1985 SC 270 (6,10) E&F 1989 SC1642 (15)
ACT:
Constitution of India, art. 14-Bombay Rents,
Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (Act LVII of 1947), s. 4Bombay
Housing Board (Amendment) Act (Bombay Act XI of 1951) inserting new s. 3-A in
Bombay Housing Board Act (Act LXIX of 1948) -Whether ultra vires the
Constitution.
HEADNOTE:
Held, that neither s. 4 of Bombay Rents,
Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (Act LVII of 1947) nor the new
s 3-A inserted in Bombay Housing Board Act, (Act LXIX of 1948@ by the Amending
Act (Bombay Act XI of 1951) is ultra vires art. 14 of the Constitution.
The facts and arguments are sufficiently
stated in the Judgment.
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION PETITION No. 271 of
1952 Petition for special leave to appeal No. 108 of 1952.
Petition under article 32 of the Constitution
and petition for special leave against the Judgment and Order stated the 7th
July, 1952, of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay (Chagla C. J. and
Gajendragadkar J.) in Civil Revision Application No. 567 of 1952.
J. B. Dadachanji for the petitioner.
M. C. Setalvad, Attorney-General for India,
and C. K. Daphtary, Solicitor-General for India (Porus A. Mehta, with them) for
the respondents.
1953. December 18. The Judgment of the Court
was delivered by DAs J, 573 DAS J.-The petitioner before us is in occupation of
two rooms Nos. 387 and 388 in Barrack No. T-93 in Sion Dharavi Camp in Greater
Bombay. The camp Consisting of several tenements was constructed and' owned by
the Government of India during the last world war for the use of the military.
In 1948 the Government of Bombay now
represented by the State of Bombay purchased the camp and entrusted the
management thereof to the Bombay Provincial Housing Board--a body constituted
by a Government Resolution. In the same year the Bombay Housing Board, the
respondent No. 4 (hereinafter referred to as the Board), was established by the
Bombay Housing Board Act, 1948 (Act No. LXIX of 1948) as a body corporate,
competent to acquire and hold property.
The purposes of the Act included the
management and use of lands and buildings belonging to or vested in the Board.
The Board is authorised to frame and execute
housing schemes. Undersection3(3)the Board.is to be deemed to be a local
authority for the purposes of that Act and the Land Acquisition (Bombay
Amendment) Act, 1948. Section 54 (3)provides that all assets entrusted to the
Bombay Provincial Housing Board shall upon a declaration made by the Government
of Bombay vest in the Board. On 1st June, 1949 the Government of Bombay having
made the necessary declaration the Sion Dharavi Camp vested,-in the Board.
It appears that before the camp was made over
to the Bombay Provincial Housing Board certain persons including the petitioner
had' without any authority or title, occupied portions of the camp. An
arrangement was made that the petitioner and the other persons who had gone
into occupation of portions of the camp would pay such rent as would be fixed
by the Government of Bombay. The Government of Bombay undertook to carry out
certain repairs to the camp with the object of reconditioning the same and the
petitioner and others also agreed to pay such rent as the Government would then
fix. The petitioner and others signed a letter embodying the terms of the
agreement. The petitioner's rent was originally fixed at Rs. 14 per month.
The Government Of Bombay then reconditioned
574 the structures at considerable cost and the revised rent in respect of the rooms
in the occupation of the petitioner worked out at Rs. 56-8 per month.
In or about February, 1950, the Board served
a notice on the petitioner calling upon him to quit and vacate the rooms in his
occupation at the end of March, 1950. An intimation was also given by that
notice that if the petitioner agreed to pay the revised, rent of Rs. 56-8 per
month the Board would waive the notice to quit. The petitioner not having
agreed to pay the revised rent the Board took proceedings against the petitioner
in the Court of Small Causes at Bombay to recover possession of the premises in
his occupation. The petitioner took the plea, inter alia, that he was protected
by the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (Act LVII
of 1947) popularly called the Bombay Rent Act. The Board, however, contended
that its premises were exempted from the operation of the Bombay Rent Act by
virtue of section 4 of that Act which runs as follows:" This Act shall not
apply to any premises belonging to the Government or a local authority or apply
as against the Government to any tenancy or other like relationship created by
a grant from the Government in respect of premises taken on lease or
requisitioned by the Government; , but it shall apply in respect of premises
taken on lease or in respect of premises let to the Government or a local
authority." The petitioner's rejoinder was that the Board was not a local
authority and could not, therefore, claim the benefit of section 4 and further
that that section was unconstitutional in that it offended against the equal
protection clause of the Constitution. During the pendency of the proceedings
in the Court of Small Causes the Bombay Housing Board Act was amended by the
Bombay Housing Board (Amendment) Act (Act XI of 1951). Section 3-A which was
added by the amending Act is in the words following:575 "3-A. For the
removal of doubt, it is hereby declared that the Bombay Rents, Hotel &
Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947,(a)shall not apply nor shall be deemed to
have ever applied to any land or building belonging to or vesting in the Board
under or for the purposes of this Act;
(b)shall not apply nor shall be deemed to
have ever applied as against the Board to any tenancies or other like
relationship created by the Board in respect of such land or building;
(c)but shall apply to any land or building
let to the Board." The trial court held that the Board was a local
authority within the meaning of section 4 of the Bombay Rent Act and that that
section did not contravene the provisions of article 14 of the Constitution and
accordingly on the 14th February, 1952, passed an order for delivery of
possession of the two rooms to the Board but directed that the warrant for
possession should not be issued until the 15th May, 1952. The petitioner moved
the High Court in revision. The High Court found that it was difficult to hold
that the Board was a local authority but held that section 3-A -introduced by
the amending Act had retrospectively extended the exemption contained in
section 4 of the Bombay Rent Act to the Board. The High Court further held that
there had been no infraction of the petitioner's fundamental right under
article 14 and dismissed the application for revision.
The petitioner applied to the Bombay High
Court for leave to appeal to this court but that application was rejected. The
petitioner has now applied before us for special leave, to appeal against the
order of the High Court. He "has also made a substantive application under
article 32 for enforcement of his fundamental rights. Both these applications
have been posted together before us for hearing and disposal.
The only point-urged before us by learned
counsel appearing for the petitioner is that the said section 576 3-A which
exempts lands or buildings belonging to or vested in the Board from the
operation of the ,Bombay Rent Act offends against the equal protection clause
of the Constitution. He points out that there are in Bombay numerous
Co-operative Housing Societies incorporated under the Co-operative Societies
Act which are similarly situated and whose object, is also to solve housing
problem but their lands and buildings are not exempted from the' operation of
the Bombay Rent Act. The result is that while the tenants of those Co-operative
Housing Societies are fully protected by the Bombay Rent Act against
enhancement of rent and ejectment, the tenants of the Board are, by virtue of
section 3-A, denied the protection of the Bombay Rent Act.
The Co-operative Societies Act does not in
terms bring about any relationship of landlord and tenant between a Cooperative
Housing Society incorporated under that Act and its members. 'there is nothing
in that Act to indicate that any of the members of any of the Co-operative
Housing Societies is a tenant of such society. No lease or other document has
been produced in support of the suggestion that the Cooperative Housing
Societies have any tenant at all.
Further, though these Co-operative Housing
Societies are no doubt incorporated bodies, they nevertheless may earn profits
which may be distributed amongst their members. The Board, on the other hand,
is an incorporated body brought into existence for the purpose of framing
housing schemes to solve the problem of acute shortage of accommodation in Bombay. There are no shareholders interested in the distribution of any profit. It is
under the control of the Government and acts under the orders of the
Government. In effect, it is a Government sponsored body not having any profit
making motive. No material has been placed before us which may even remotely be
regarded as suggesting, much less proving, that the Co-operative Housing
Societies or their 'members stand similarly situated vis-a-vis the Board and
its tenants. The petitioner, therefore, cannot sustain Os complaint of
discrimination on this ground. 577 Learned counsel for the petitioner then said
that the effect of section 3-A is to extend the benefit of the exemption of
section 4 of the Bombay Rent Act to the Board which, in other words, implies that
the name of the Board has been added in section 4 after the local authority.
The contention is that section 4 discriminates against the tenants of
properties belonging to the Government, local authority or the Board in that
these tenants are denied the benefits of the Bombay Rent Act which are
available to all other tenants in Bombay. There can be no question that, this
exemption is given by section 4 to certain classes of tenants and this
classification is based on an intelligible differentia which distinguishes them
from other tenants and this differentia has a rational relation to the object
sought to be achieved by the Act. It is the business of the Government to solve
the accommodation problem and satisfy the public need of housing accommodation.
It was for the purpose of achieving this object that the Board was incorporated
and established. It is not to be expected that the Government or local
authority or the Board, would be actuated by any profit making mot as to unduly
enhance the rents or eject the tenants from their respective properties as
private Ian are or are likely to be. Therefore, the tenants Government or local
authority or the Board are not in need of such protection as the tenants of
private landlords are and this circumstance is a cogent basis for
differentiation. The two classes of tenants are not, by force of circumstances
placed on an equal footing and the tenants of the Government or local authority
or the Board cannot, therefore, complain of any denial of equality before the
law or of equal protection of the law. There is here no real discrimination,
for the two classes are not similarly situated. Neither section 4 of the Bombay
Rent Act nor section's 3-A of the Bombay Housing Board Act can, therefore, be
challenged as unconstitutional on the ground of contravention of article 14 of
the Constitution.
No other point has been urged before us, 578
We dismiss both the applications. The petitioner must pay one set of costs of
the application under article 32.
Petition8 dismissed. Agent for the
petitioner: Rajinder Narain. Agent for the respondents: G. H. Rajadhyaksha.
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