Suit for recovery of possession under the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999

A landlord's suit for possession of premises the Act applies to is tried by the court the Act names, whatever the amount of the claim, and succeeds only on a ground the Act allows. The Act states that court; that possession is not recovered while the tenant pays, or is ready and willing to pay, the standard rent and permitted increases; that a suit on the ground of non-payment is preceded by a written notice of demand served as the Transfer of Property Act directs; and that the tenant has a window after the summons to pay and keep the tenancy. The plaint's own particulars are the Code of Civil Procedure's; the Act applies to the areas and premises it names.

What such a document contains

The court the Act names
In Brihan Mumbai, the Court of Small Causes, Mumbai; in any area with a Court of Small Causes established under the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, that court; elsewhere, the court of the Civil Judge (Junior Division) with jurisdiction in the area where the premises are situate, or, where there is none, the Civil Judge (Senior Division) with ordinary jurisdiction — notwithstanding the amount of the claim, and no other courtSection 33(1), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)
No possession while the tenant pays, or is ready and willing to pay
A landlord is not entitled to recover possession so long as the tenant pays, or is ready and willing to pay, the standard rent and permitted increases and observes the other conditions of the tenancy consistent with the ActSection 15(1), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)
A written notice of demand before a suit for non-payment
No suit for recovery of possession on the ground of non-payment of the standard rent or permitted increases is instituted until the period the sub-section fixes has run after a notice in writing of the demand has been served on the tenant in the manner provided in section 106 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882Section 15(2), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)
A ground the Act allows
The court is satisfied of one of the grounds the section lists — among them an act contrary to clause (o) of section 108 of the Transfer of Property Act, a permanent structure erected without the landlord's written consent, conduct that is a nuisance to neighbouring occupiers or a conviction for an immoral or illegal use, and a notice to quit given by the tenant that the landlord then acted onSection 16(1), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)
The notice of demand is in writing and signed
The notice is in writing, signed by or on behalf of the person giving itSection 106(4), Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882), as applied by Section 15(2), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)
It is served in one of the ways the section allows
Sent by post to the party intended to be bound by it, or tendered or delivered personally to that party or to one of their family or servants at their residence, or — where that tender or delivery is not practicable — affixed to a conspicuous part of the propertySection 106(4), Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882), as applied by Section 15(2), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)
The particulars of the premises, the parties and the tenancy
The premises, the landlord and the tenant, the rent and the terms of the tenancy, and the facts the suit rests on. Such documents carry these; the prescribed form is not read for this sectionConvention rather than law

This document is under Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000), which is the Act in force in Maharashtra. A tenancy in another State is under that State's own Act.

The periods that attach to it

  • The suit on the ground of non-payment is not instituted until ninety days have passed after the written notice of demand was served. No decree for eviction on that ground is passed if, within ninety days of the service of the summons, the tenant pays or tenders in court the standard rent and permitted increases then due, with simple interest at the rate the sub-section states, and thereafter keeps paying or tendering them until the suit is decided and pays the costs the court directs — Section 15(2) and (3), Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000)

Not established

  • The Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 applies to the areas it names or the State Government notifies, and not to every premises inside them — it exempts the classes its own sections and notifications exempt. Whether a particular premises is inside the Act is not established here; outside it, the general law of leases in the Transfer of Property Act governs the notice and the ending of the tenancy instead.

What this guide is not

Of the points listed below, six are fixed by the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 (Maharashtra Act 18 of 2000) itself and one are convention — such documents carry them, and no provision read for this section requires them. This is a description of a kind of document and not a document — confirm the contents of any document in a particular matter with an advocate.

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