NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 20, 2005
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
The Supreme Court has held that an NRI landlord can
seek immediate eviction of his rented premises even
though he had no intention of settling down permanently
in the country.
‘‘There is no requirement that he has permanently
settled in India on his return or that he has returned
to India with an intention to permanently settle in
the country,’’ a bench of Justice K G Balakrishnan
and Justice P P Naolekar said while disposing of a
bunch of petitions filed by some aggrieved tenants
in Punjab.
The NRI could seek immediate possession of his premises
for expanding his business in India or for his temporary
stay or for use by his dependent, who wished to come
back to India, it added.
The apex court was upholding an order of the Punjab
and Haryana High Court, which had ruled that it was
not necessary for an NRI to come to India personally
to file a petition for eviction of his premises.
Interpreting section 13B of the East Punjab Urban
Rent Restriction Act, which created a special class
of NRI landlords with special rights to recover immediate
possession of tenanted premises, the High Court had
said that the requirement—inserted by an amendment
in 2001 to protect the interest of NRIs—was satisfied
if he came later after the petition was filed.
It noted that an NRI landlord could seek immediate
eviction by proving that he was an NRI, that he had
returned to India, that he required the premises for
himself or his dependent and that he was the owner
of the premises for the past over five years. Though
the court would presume that the NRI landlord required
the premises for his personal use, the tenant had
the right of rebuttal.
