Rent Act amendment under SC scanner

Allows NRIs to take immediate possession of their property

Chandigarh, October 12
The amendment in the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction (Amendment) Act, 2001, empowering non-resident Indians (NRIs) to take immediate possession of rented residential and non-residential property, has come under the scanner of the Supreme Court.
A Bench comprising Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Tirath Singh Thakar recently issued notice to the parties concerned, including the Union Government and the UT Administration, on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Chandigarh-based Commercial Tenants Association (CTA).
Challenging the jurisdiction of the Punjab legislature in amending the Act, the petitioners had termed it a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
The notification, extending the amended Act to Chandigarh, was in exercise of essential legislative functions of the executive, which was not permissible under Section 87 of the Reorganisation Act, the SLP contended.
The amendment in the Act and its extension to Chandigarh had created panic among tenants as a large number of NRI landlords who had property in Chandigarh and Punjab had shot off notices to commercial tenants for summary vacation of their property.
An amendment, 13-B, had been added after Section 13-A in the notification of the Act, which provided that NRIs could get immediate possession of their property by applying to the relevant authority.
Meanwhile, CTA president Arvind Jain appealed to aggrieved tenants from Chandigarh and Punjab to join hands for a united fight against the amendment.
On the other hand, NRIs had been claiming that tenants had been paying them peanuts by way of rent for property worth crores despite raking in big money.
There was nothing wrong in getting property vacated for personal use, NRIs had contended. Earlier, the CTA had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which did not find merit in the plea and rejected it.