'Statutory tenant is not an expression to be found in any provision of the Delhi Rent Control Act 1958 or the rent control legislation of any other State. It is an expression coined by the judges in England and, like many other concepts in English law, it has been imported into the jurisprudence of this country and has become an expression of common use to denote a tenant whose contractual tenancy has been determined but who is continuing in possession of the premises by virtue of the protection against eviction afforded to him by the rent control legislation. Though the expression 'statutory tenant' has not been used in any rent control legislation the concept of statutory tenant finds recognition in almost every rent control legislation The definition of 'tenant' in Section 2(1) of tie Delhi Rent Control Act 1958-and I am referring here to the provisions of the Delhi Rent Control Act 1958 because that is the statute with which we are concerned in the present case-includes a statutory tenant. It says in Clause (ii) that 'tenant' includes any person continuing the possession after the termination of his tenancy'. Such a person would not be a tenant under the ordinary law but he is recognised as a 'tenant' by the rent control legislation and is therefore described as a statutory tenant as contra-distinguished from contractual tenant. The statutory tenant is, by virtue of inclusion in the definition of 'tenant', placed on the same footing as contractual tenant so far as rent control legislation is concerned. The rent control legislation in fact, as pointed out by this Court in a seven judge Bench decision in V. Dhanapal Chettiar v. Yesodai Ammal MANU/SC/0504/1979 : [1980]2SCR334 does not make any distinction between contractual tenant and statutory tenant. "It does not permit the landlord to snap his relationship with the tenant merely by his act of serving a notice to quit on him. Inspite of the notice, the law says that he continues to be a tenant and he does so enjoying all the rights of a lessee and is at the same time deemed to be under all the liabilities such as payment of rent etc. in accordance with the law." The distinction between contractual tenancy and statutory tenancy is thus completely obliterated by the rent control legislation. Though genetically the percentage of these two legal concepts is different, one owing its origin to contract and the other to rent control legislation, they are equated with each other and their incidents are the same. If a contractual tenant has an estate or interest in the premises which is heritable, it is difficult to understand why a statutory tenant should be held not to have such heritable estate or interest. In one case, the estate or interest is the result of contract while in the other it is the result of statute. But the quality of the estate or interest is the same in both cases. The difficulty in recognising that a statutory tenant can have estate or interest in the premises arises from the fact that throughout the last century and the first half of the present, almost until recent times, our thinking has been dominated by two major legal principles, namely, freedom of contract and sanctity of private property and therefore we are unable to readily accept that legal relationships can be created by statute despite want of contractual consensus and in derogation of property rights of the landlord. We are unfortunately not yet reconciled to the idea that the law is moving forward from contract to status. Why can estate or interest in property not be created by statute ? When the rent control legislation places a statutory tenant on the same footing as a contractual tenant, wipes out the distinction between the two and invests a statutory tenant with the same right, obligations and incidents as a contractual tenant, why should it be difficult to hold that, just like a contractual tenant, a statutory tenant also has estate or interest in the premises which can be inherited.
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Civil Appeal No. 3441 of 1972
Decided On: 01.05.1985
Gian Devi Anand Vs. Jeevan Kumar and Ors.
Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Y.V. Chandrachud, C.J., P.N. Bhagwati, S. Murtaza Fazal Ali, V. Balakrishna Eradi and A.N. Sen, JJ.
Citation: AIR 1985 SC 796
