A tenant who fails to pay rent despite a court order cannot seek legal protection against eviction from the premises, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice V.B. Gupta passed the order while dismissing a tenant’s plea seeking setting aside of an eviction order passed against him by the court of rent controller.
The Delhi Rent Control Act grants protection to the defaulter tenant if the due amount is deposited. However, such right is taken away if the tenant defaults for the second time, the court said.
“When the tenant makes a second default, no protection can be given on eviction,” the court said in an order delivered Friday.
The court dismissed the plea of the tenant who failed to deposit arrears for the last 42 years despite the order passed by the rent controller in 2008.
Instead of depositing the sum, the tenant filed an appeal and subsequently withdrew it after six months.
The court observed that the conduct of the tenant was callous and he had no intention to pay and therefore the eviction order was rightly passed for non-payment of the rent.
“The benefit under the act could not have been given to such a tenant who, despite suffering a decree, fails to pay rent regularly and again commits default,” the court said.
