Sc Firm On Ruling As Bombay Rent Law Set To Lapse

Court suggests fixing of a statutory multiplier for the rent after March 31 and adjustment of the amount once the law is passed

With barely two weeks left for the Bombay Rent Control Act to lapse, the Maharashtra government faced an unsympathetic Supreme Court yesterday which refused to change its December judgment.

The court had declared the Act to be unconstitutional and unreasonable, especially in fixing the standard rent.

However, since the nearly half-century-old law lapses on March 31, the court did not quash it, but let the government draft a new law in accordance with the guidelines in the judgment.

 

Attorney General Ashok Desai submitted before the bench presided over by Chief Justice M M Punchhi that this is a volcano for urban dwellers. Tenants will face civic death; their right to life under Article 21 will be affected.

Punchhi said that if the judgment and the national model rent law were followed, tenants would have to pay over50 times the current rent.

The national model law of 1992 prescribes a raise of 22 times; and then there was an addition of 142 per cent municipal taxes.

The counsel said that the joint select committee report on the new law was expected.

The state government had sought nine months to draft a new law because the select committee report has to be discussed in both Houses and then approved by the President. This could not be done within two weeks, Desai said.

The judges, however, were not inclined to concede the request of the Attorney General and adjourned the case till Tuesday.

Punchhi observed that the court could do little because the Act itself was expiring on March 31. It was not as if the court fixed time for the operation of its judgment. The judge suggested that the government could fix a statutory multiplier for the rent after March 31 and adjust the amount later after the law was passed. The government could also explain the situation to the public to avoid unrest, he said.

Justice B N Kirpal said that the Supreme Court judgment only said that the new law should be fair and just, unlike the old one. Therefore, the government could adopt any law which was fair and may even adopt the national model law, which was available with it. The model law was drafted by chief ministers including the Maharashtra representative, the judge pointed out.