State Govt Proposes 5% Rent Hike With 1987 Cut-Off

The amendment to the Bombay Rent Control Act, introduced in the state legislative assembly yesterday by the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra at the behest of the Supreme Court, has strangely set a cut-off period of October 1, 1987, for a 5 per cent increase in rent.

The bill, which was to be approved through a consensus after chief minister Manohar Joshi held a meeting with the opposition on Wednesday, is expected to run into trouble, on the back of the

fact that only pre-October 1987 tenants will attract a 5 per cent hike in their rents.

The bill, to extend the duration of and amend the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947, (popularly known as the Bombay Rent Control Act), seeks to increase the standard rent, through an insertion in section 7A of the 1947 Act, by 5 per cent.

The bill, as is evident from the statement of objects and reasons, proposes to be rabidly pro-tenants. The Bombay Rent Act, 1947, applies to Mumbai as well as many large towns and cities in Maharahstra. The conditions requiring control of rents and protection from eviction of all protected tenancies covered by the Act continue to exist.

It is imperative that the above rent control and protection against eviction must continue in a just and fair manner, otherwise there will be enormous social unrest, social strife and disruption causing serious threat to public order.

The otherwise-innocuous bill was circulated to members and the press in the afternoon but the discussion commenced at 7 p.m. The discussion continued and the bill would be taken up for approval only today .

The only amendment to the 1947 Act reads: On the date of the commencement of the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control (Extension of Duration and Amendment) Act, 1988, a landlord shall be entitled to make an increase of 5 per cent in the rent of the premises let before the first day of October 1987.

According to sources in pro-tenants organisations, the cut-off date is just the handle provided for landlords to press for a litigation to do away with the section of standard rent altogether, if not the Act itself.

The new bill, if enacted, would only be a temporary arrangement, to avoid any contempt of the Supreme Court. Basically, the purpose is to buy time from the court, the sources said.

The government strategy merely involves indicating to the court that it has intention of amending the 51-year-old Act, which will lapse on March 31, 1998. With barely three working days to go, the Sena-BJP has to act with alacrity. The Supreme Court had ruled that the Rent Act has to be replaced by another legislation which is just, fair and reasonable.

What the goverment wants to tell the court is that while the amendment, introduced yesterday, would be only an interim measure, it would bring forward a composite legislation after the joint select committee of the legislature returns, with its comments, the Rent Control Bill, 1993, introduced by the then Congress government.