MOHINOER KUMAR ETC, ETC. v. STATE OF HARYANA AND ANR.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

AMARENDRA NATH S~> J, The constitutional validity of S. 1(3) of the llaryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1973 has been challenged in these writ petitions. This question -which is colllmon to all the writ petitions is the only question which arises for consideration and these writ petitions are accordingly being disposed of by this common judgment. c The question has been urged as a pure question of law. In that view of the matter it does not become necessary to refer the facts of any of the wirt petitions.

s. 1(3) as originally enacted in the Haryana Urban (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to for the D sake of brevity as the Act) was in the following terms:

"Nothing in this Act shall apply to

(i) any residential building the construction of which is completed on or after the commencement of this Act E for a period of ten years from the date of its completion;

(ii) any non-residential building construction of which is completed after the 31st March, 1962

(iii) a.~y rented land let out on or after 31st March 1%2.

This proviSion was amended by the Amending Act of 1978 (Act lb of 1978) to read as follows: G "(3) Nothing in this Act shall apply to any building the construction of which is completed on or after the commencement of this Act for a period of ten years trOm the date of its completion."

It is the validity of this amended provision which has been H questioned in 'these writ petitions.

MOtiINDER KIJMAR v. S'fATE [A.N.SEN, J.]. 863

The validity is challenged mainly on the following grounds: A

(1) The provision is arbitrary and is ·violative of Art• 14 of the Constitution.

(2) In any event in so far as this provision operates retrospectively and seeks to take away the vested B rights of the petitioner under the Act, prior to this amendment, the same must be held to be fllegal and invalid.

The argument is that this: provision seeks to make an invidious distinction between buildings constructed before the . c comnencement of this Act and building the construction of which was completed on or after the c011111encement of this Act and on the basis of this invidious distinction this provision discriminates between the landlords and tenants of buildings constructed before the Act and after the Act. It is urged that on the basis of this distinction between building constructed before and ·after the comnencement of the Act, a landlord enjoys in.case of the build- ings construction of which is completed on or after the c011111ence- ment of the Act . an exemption from the operation of the Act and the tenant in respect of such building is denied the protection and the benefits of the Act for a period of 10 years from the date of completion of the construcUon of the building·, whereas the landlord of any building constructed before the couunencement of the Act does not enjoy any such exemption and the tenant of such building enjoys the protection and all the benefits of the Act. ·It is submitted that this discrimination between one class of landlords and their tenants and the other class of landlords and their tenants on the basis of the time of completion of the buildings is clearly arbitrary and is violative of Art. 14 of the F Constitution. The submission is that Rent Control Legislation is ·enacted for the purpose of affording protection to the tenants and the Act in question has also been passed for achieving the same object. Reference in this connection is made to the State- ment of Objects and Reasons for the passing of the Act and to the Preamble of the Act. It is contended that ,this classification of G buildings on the basis of the time of completion of cortstruction has no reasonable nexus with the object to be achieved and may on the contrary frustrate the purpose for which the Act has been passed inasmuch as in respect of the buildings the construction of which· was complet~d on or after the commencement of the Act, .the tenants are denied the entire benefit and protectiori .of the H .Act. It is· further contended -that the~e can be no rational 'baSis

864 SUPREME COURT REPORTS t1985] SUPP.2 s.c.R. A in fixing the period of the completion of the building with reference to the date of commencement of the Act which received the assent of the Governor on the 25th of Apr.il, 1973 and was published in the Haryana Gazette on the 27th of April, 1973 and also in prescribing a period of 10 years for exemption from the ll operation of the Act for the buildings, the cunstruction of which was completed on or after the commencement of the Act. This discrimination, it. is submitted, is arbitrary and violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution and in this connection reference has been made to the decision of this Court in the case of llotor General Ttadei:s awl Others · v. State of Aodhra Pradesh and Ors. [1984] l s.c.c. 222, and also to the decision of this Court in c the case of · M/s. Punjab Tin Supply Co. O.!IJ!dlgarb v. Central Govermelit and Ors. [1984] l s.c.c. 206.

The next contention is that the ilmended provision has been given retrospective effect inasmuch as the amendment which was introduced in 1978 has been made applicable to any building construction of which was completed on or after the date of D commencement of the Act in 1973 and the retrospective operation of the Act has been effect of taking away the vested right of the tenant and must, therefore, be held to be illegal and bad. It is argued that s. 3(1) of the Act, as originally enacted was void and unconstitutional inasmuch as ·-no period of exemption of any building which may qualify for exemption had been fixed and it is i,: well settled that an · indefinite or unlimited immunity to any building, from the purview of the Act is arbitrary and unconsti- tutional. The argument is that as the original provision contained in s. 1(3) of the Act, prior to its amendment, was void and unconstitutional, no building enjoyed any exemption from the operation of the Act and the tenants of the buildings were enti- F tled to the protection and the benefit of the Act and had acquired a vested right to be governed by the provision of the Act. lt is submitted that this vested right of the tenants is sought to be interferred with by the amended s. 1 (3) which has been made applicable to all the buildings construction of which was completed on or after the date of commencement of. the Act. G We do not see any force in any of the contentions.

It.is true that Rent Control Legislation is usually enacted, and the present Act was also passed, taking into account the conditions prevailing in the State, to regulate the relationship H between the landlord and the tenant in the larger interest of the society and or affording protectiori to tenants against exploita-

MOHINDfill KUMAR v. STATE [A.N.SEN, J.j 865 ' A tion by landlordo on account of shortage of acl:omodation. The statement of Objects and Reasons for passing the Act recites -

"Certain provisions of the existing law are not con- clusive to harmonious landlord tenant relationship and also hamper rapid. urban develorment. In order/to remedy these defects and to entitle the tenants to the amenities of Water supply, electricity ~ sewerage, necessity of fresh legislation has been felt. Oppor-'· tunity has also been taken to rationalise the basis for determination of fair rent and to provide for eviction of these tenants, who construct their own houses in the urban area concerned sufficeint for their requirement."

The Preamble to the Act reads:-

"An Act to control the increase of rent of certain buildings and rented land situated within the limits of urban areas, and the eviction of tenants therefrom.••

There cannot be any doubt that the paramount object of every Rent Control Legislation including the present Act, is to provide safeguards for tenants against expolitation·by landlords who see.~ to take undue advantage of the pressing need for accommodation of E a large nlllllber of people looking for· a house on rent for residence or business in the background of acute scarcity o{ accommodation is at the very root of the ·problem and i f houses were freely available at reasonaHe rent, there would hardly be any need for Rent Control Legislation. It is entirely for the Legislature .to decide whether any measures, are to be adopted for remedying the situation and for ameliorating the hardship· of tenants. The Legislature may very well coine to a conclusio;,_ that it is the shortage of buildings which has resulted in.scarcity of accommodation and has created a situation . where the demand for accommodation is far in excess of the requisite·supply, and it is because of such actue ~carcity of accoumodation the landlords.are in a position to exploit the situation to the serious detr.iment of the tenants. The Legislature in its wisdom may properly consider that in effecting an improvement of the situation and . for mitigating the hardship of the tenanted class caused mainly due to shortage of buildings, it will be ~roper · to encouriige construction of new buildings, as coilstructl.on of new buildings will provide more accommodation; easing the situation to a .large

p. 866

A extent, and will ultimately result in benefitting the tenants. As in·view of the rigours of Rent Control Legislation, persons with means may not be inclined to invest in construction of new houses, the Legislature to attract investment in construction of new houses may consider it reasonable to provide for adequate incentives so that new constructions may come up. It is an ele- B mentary law of economics that anybody who wants to invest his money in any venture will expect a fair return on the investment made. As acute scarcity of accODDnOdation is · to an extent responsible for the landlord and tenant problem, a measure adopted by the Legislature for seeking to meet the situation by encouraging the construction of new buildings for the purpose of mitigating the hardship of tenants must be considered to be a c step in the right direction. The provision for exemption from the operation of the Rent Control Legislation by way of incentive to persons with means to construct new houses has been made in Sec. 1(3) of the Act by the Legislature in the legitimate hope that construction of new buildings will ultimately result in mit.iga- tion of the hardship of the tenants. Such incentive has a clear nexus with the object to be achieved and cannot be considered to D be unreasonable or arbitrary. Any such incentive offered for the purpose of construction of new buildings with the object of easing the situation of scarcity of accommodation for ameliora- ting the conditions of the tenants, cannot be said to be unrea- sonable, provided the nature and character of the incentive and the measure of exemption allowed are 'not otherwise unreasonable and arbitrary. The exemption to be allowed must be for a reason- able and a definite period. An exemption for an indefinite period or a period which in the facts and ci.rcumstances of any parti- cular case may be considered to be unduly long, may be held to be arbitrary. The exemption must necessarily be effective from a particular date and must be with the object of promoting new constructions. With the commencement of the Act, the provisions of the Rent Act with all the restrictions and rigours become effective. Buildings which have been constructed before the commencement of the Act were already there and the question of any kind of impetus or incentive to such buildings does not arise. The Legislature, therefore, very appropriately allowed the benefit of the exemption to the buildings, the construction of which commenced or was completed on or after the commencement of the Act· This exemption in respect of buildings coming up or to come up on or after the date of commencement of the Act is likely to serve the purpose of encouraging new buildings to be construc- ted. There is therefore nothing arbitrary or unreasonable in fixing the date of commencement of the Act from which the exemp- tion is to be operative.

MOHINOER KUMAR v; STATE [A.N.SEN, J.] 867

The exemption for a period of 10 years from the operation of the Act allowed to buildings, the construction of which coomenced or was completed on or after the date of commencement of the Act, is fair and reasonable. It is for a definite period and t.hat period of exemption cannot be considered to be too long; and this exemption, the Legislature may be of the view, will serve the purpose of encourging the construction of new buildings. It is for the Legislature to decide the period of exemption that may be allowed and to · fix the date from which . the period of exemption should run. This will ordinarily be a matter of Legislative police and this Court will not normally inte~fere unless the Court is of the opinion that the period of exemption or the date frcm which the exemption is to operate is unreasonable and arbitrary. The classification of buildings with reference to the date of comnencement of the Act namely, buildings conatructed before the comnencement of the Act and buildings the construction of which was completed on or after the date of the commencement of the Act, has a rational basis and has a clear i:iexus with the object to be achieved. For the purpose of achieving the object and encouraging the construction of new houses with a view to ameliorate the hardship of the tenants by reJiklving the scarcity of accommodation, the classification of .the landlord and the tenant of a house constructed before the commencement of the Act and the landlord and tenant of a house, the construction of which commences or ie completed on or after the comnencement ·of the Act, is clearly founded on an intelligible dif£erentia which has E a rational relation to the object and this· ciassification does not result in any invidious discrimination between the classes of landlords and tenants so classified. This classification is not arbitrary and is·not violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution.

The decisions on which reliance has. been placed on behalf of the petitioners is indeed of no assistance. In the case of Motor General Tr.wlers (supra), this Court had to consider the constitu- tional validity of s. 32 {b) of the Andhra Pradesh Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1960. This provision exempted aU buildings constructed on or after August 26, 1957 from the operation of the Act. No period had been fixed for which this exemption.will be enjoyed by owners of buildings constructed on or after 26th August, 1957 and the exemption appeared to be in the nature of a permanent one. This Court after referring to various authorities naturally declared the said provision to be invalid, holding: . H "After giving our anxious consideration to the learned arguments addressed before us, we are of the view that

868 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1985] SUPP;2 s.c.R.

A clause (b) of Section 32 of the Act should be declared as violative of Article 14 of the Constitution because the continuance of that provision on the statute book will imply the creation of a privileged class of land- lords without any rational basis as the incentive of B build which provided a nexus for a reasonable classi- fication of such class of landlords no longer exists by lapse of time in the case of the majority of such landlords. There is no reason why after all these years they should not be brought at par with other landlords who are subject to the restrictions imposed by the Act in the matter of eviction of tenants and control ·of rents." c It is, however, to be noted that fois Court in this very case observed at PP• 243 & 244 as follows:-

''We do relize the adverse effect of this decision on many who may have recently built houses by spending 0 their life savings or by borrowing large funds during these inflationary days at high rates of interest, on the expectation and belief that they would not be subjected to the restrictions imposed by the Act. The incentive to build provides a rational basis for classification and it is necessary, to the national interest, that there should be freedom from restric- tions for a limited period of time. It is always open to the State Legislature or the State Government to take action by amending the Act itself or under Section 26 of the Act, as the case may be, not only to provide incentive to persons who are desirous of building new houses, as it serves a definite social purpose but also to mitigate the rigour to such class of landlords who may have recently built their houses for a limited period as it has been done in the Union Territory of Chandigarh as brought out in our recent jwlgment in l'lmjall Tin SUpply co. Dumd•garti v. Central ~. The question whether new legisla- G tion should be initiated to exempt newly constructed buildings for a limited period of time on the pattern of similar legislation undertaken by different St.ates or to exempt such class of buildings for a given number of years from the provisions of the Act by the H issue of a notification under Section 26 of the Act is one for the St.ate Government to decide."

MOHlNDER KllMAR v. STATE- [A.N.SEN, · J; j 869

A In the other decision, namely l'lmjah tin Supply Co. C>ynx!igarQ (supra), the validity of s. 3 of the East Punjab )lent Restrictions Act, 1949 and all three notifications issued under the said section provided for exemption of every . building constructed in the urban ares of Charidigarh for a period of 5 years from the respective date applicable to. it from the .opera- B tion of the Act came to be challenged. This Court upheld the validity of s. 3 of the Act and the notifications impugned observing:- ·· ·

"In the result we declare that ·Section 3 ·.of .the Act and the notification .dated January 31, 1973 and the c other notifications impugned in. these cases are valid and effective. We further declare. that the exemption granted by the notifica_tion ·dated January ..31, 1973 applies only to those · buildings _which are given sewerage connection or electric connection or which are occupied, as the case may be on or after January D 31, 1973 and not to those buildings which satisfied any of the said conditions before January 31, 1973."

The following observations of the Court: at pp.· 216-17 may be usefully noted : - . . . "The Preamble and the provisions ~fa statute· iio doubt assist the Court in finding out. itsobjett .. and Policy · but its object and policy rieed not always. be strictly confined to its preamble.and the provisions contained therein. The object and ·policy of the Act which is· now·'· before us appears to be· slightly Wider: Jhan' some of the key provisions of· the ·Act namely. fixation of ·fair rent and prevelltion of . Unreason.B:ble. ·: tiviC~io~·- ... _o_f tenants.· The acute ·problem.of .shortage of urb.iri howi~ ing as we all·· know hits• . become ·.a permanent · feature throughout india. It is on' acc~tillt of 'the shortagii of. the number of houses ,in· urban area, ·as landlords get an opportunity to explOit tenan~s who· are in neec! of · G housing accommodation by cOinpt?lliug.theni to ellter'into .unconscio\l&ble bi.rgains'. ·Tue.·ACt is passed as one of· the measures taken to mitigate the hardscip caused .to the tenants. The policy and object of ·t:he Act general~ ' ly is rrltigation of the hardship of tenants. Su~h mit_igation can be_ attained by several fileasures, one of. H them ·being creatio·n of incentive · ·to Persons-_, Wii:h .

870 SUPRF.!IE COURT REPORTS [1985] SUPP.2 s.c.R.

A capital who are otherwise reluctant to invest in the construction of new buildiugs in view of the chilliug . effect of the rent control laws. As part of the said scheme in order to persuade them to invest in the construction of new buildings exemption is granted to them from the operation of the Act for a short period B. of five years so that whatever may be the hardship for the time beiug to the tenants of the new buildings, the new buildiugs so constructed may after the expiry of the Period of exemption be ·available for the pool of housiug acCOOIDOdation . controlled by the Act. The impugned notification is not, therefore, ultra vires Section 3 of the Act as in · its true effect-;-IT c advances the scheme, object and purposes of the Act which are articulated in the preamble and the substan- tive provisions of the Act. Moreover the classifica- tion of buildiugs into exempted buildings and unexemp- ted buildiugs brought about by the notification bears a just and reasonable nexus to the object to be achieved namely the creation of additional housiug 1 D accOlllDodation to ineet the growiug needs of persons who have no accOlllDodation to reside or to carry on l business and it cannot be considered as discriminatory 4 or arbitrary or unreasonable in view of the shortness I of the period of exemption available in the case of ! each exempted buildiug. The exemption granted for a E period of five years only serves as an incentive as stated above and does not create a class of landlords who are for ever kept outside the scope of the Act. The notification tries to balance the interests of the landlords on the one hand and of the tenants on the other in a reasonable way. We do not, therefore, agree with the submission that the notification either falls outside the object and policy of the statute or is discriminatory."

The aforesaid observations, in our view, clearly negative the contentions raised by the petitioners and conclude the question against them in so far as the validity of S. l ( 3) of the Act on the grounds of arbitratiness and illegal discrimination is concerned.

The other contention that this provision must be held to be bad inasmuch as this. provision operates retrospectively and seeks to take away the vested rights of the petitioners under the Act

MOHINDER KUMAR v. STATE [A.N.SEN, J.] 871

A is equally without any merit. The section on its proper construc- tion clearly indicates that the section is not retrospective in operation. Merely because the buildings the construction of which CODWmCed or was completed after the date of cOlllllellCement of the Act in 1973, come within the purview of this perticular provision which was introduced by amendment in 1978, the provision does not become retrospective. This provision operates prospectively and becomes effective after its incorporation in the Act by the amendment, though the buildings completed on . or after the C011111Pncement.of this Act in 1973 are brought within the scope of this Section. The argument that the tenants have acquired a vested right under the Act prior to its amendment is without any substance. Prior to the amendment of Section 1(3)· by the Amending Act of 1978, the provision as it originally stood cannot be said to have conferred any vested right on the tenants. The provision, as it originally stood prior to its amendment, might not have been constitutionally valid as the exemption sought to be granted was for an indefinite period. ·That does not necessarily imply that any vested right in any tenant was thereby created. The D right claimed is thP. right to be governed by the Act prior to its amendment. If the Legislature had thought it fit to repeal the entire Act could the .tenant have claimed · any such right 1 Obviously, they could not have the question of acquiring any vested rights really does not arise. Even if it could be said that the tenants had acquired any right because of any invalidity of the earlier provision before amendment, it is always open to the Legislature to remove any defect to make it valid. It is well settled that if any provision made by the legislature is found constitutionally invalid for some lacunae or ,othelwise such provision can always be validated by rem0ving the defect or lacuna by passing a validating Act• Validating Acts may be passed and, in fact, are usually passed with retrospective effect to remedy any situation which might have brought about as a result of the original provision being declared invalid, provided how- ever the Validating Act sought to be passed is within the compe- tence of the Legislature.

In the result, these writ petitions are all dismissed. There shall, however, be no orde~ as to 'COsts. G

Petitions dismissed.