The top court also clarified that the present provisions serve a specific policy objective to ensure the right of the NRIs to occupy their property in the UT of Chandigarh and the state of Punjab after “returning” to their country.
CHANDIGARH: The Supreme Court (SC) has made it clear that the preferential right given to non-resident Indians (NRIs) to evict tenants from their properties is not arbitrary or does not violate the right to equality.
A full bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Sanjiv Khanna of the Supreme Court passed these orders while upholding the constitutional validity of Section 13-B of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 (Rent Act).
“Section 13-B of the Rent Act cannot be held to be unconstitutional because it grants a right to claim eviction for bona fide need by summary procedure to NRIs subject to and on the satisfaction of statutory conditions. The plea that Section 13-B ought to be struck down on the ground that similar rights can be extended to other landlords is without substance and should be rejected.
It rests with the legislature to make laws and extend it to other similarly-situated persons. The Rent Act invariably gives similar rights by a controlled mechanism and alluded riders to various other classes/ groups of landlords, namely, government servants, members of armed forces, the retired or soon to retire employees of the central and the state governments, widows, etc,” the SC observed.
The top court also clarified that the present provisions serve a specific policy objective to ensure the right of the NRIs to occupy their property in the UT of Chandigarh and the state of Punjab after “returning” to their country.
The bench has also made it clear that the Punjab government is within its right to implement such law in the state and the central government is empowered to implement such provisions within the area of UT of Chandigarh.
NRIs can file eviction plea only once
In this case, several appeals were filed before the apex court by tenants of different residential and non-residential buildings in the UT of Chandigarh and urban areas in the state of Punjab.
