[Civil Appeal No. 4563 of 2014 arising out of S.L.P (C) No.26941 of 2011]. I have had the privilege of going through the elaborate Order proposed by my Esteemed Brother J.S. Khehar, J. While I entirely agree with the view that the power to strike out the defence vested in the Court under Section 15 (7) of the Delhi Rent Control Act is discretionary and ought to be exercised only when the tenant deliberately, contumaciously or negligently fails to deposit the rent due from him, I have, however, not been able to persuade myself to hold that such deliberate, neglect or contumacious failure has been established against the petitioner-tenant in the instant case so as to justify the exceptional step of the Court striking out his defence at the threshold. The facts giving rise to the controversy have been set out at great length in the judgment of my Erudite Brother. I, therefore, do not consider it necessary to recapitulate the same over again except to the extent it may be necessary in the course of this judgment to do so. Before adverting to the factual matrix relevant to the question of striking out the tenant's defence, we need to remind ourselves of the spirit underlying the Rent Control Legislations in general and Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 in particular. The historical perspective in which these legislations came about has been traced in several decisions of this Court. Nagindas Ramdas v. Dalpatram Ichharam @ Brijram and Ors. (1974) 1 SCC 242 is one such decision in which this Court traced the historical compulsions that led to the enactment of the rent laws in this country.
↧