Tenant Not Protected from Eviction Under West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act If Rent Admitted Is Not Deposited Within Section 7 Deadline : Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has clarified that under the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1997 (WBPT Act), tenants must deposit arrears of rent with interest and file an application for rent determination within 30 days of receiving an eviction summons. This statutory deadline is mandatory and cannot be extended by invoking Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963.
The case was heard by a Bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar, where the tenant had failed to deposit admitted rent within the prescribed 30 days and later filed a delayed application for rent determination along with a plea under Section 5. Both the Trial Court and the High Court rejected his plea, leading to an appeal before the Supreme Court.
Upholding the High Court’s ruling, Justice Maheshwari emphasized that to seek protection against eviction under Section 7 of the WBPT Act, a tenant must satisfy two conditions within 30 days:
Deposit of admitted rent.
Filing of an application for determination of rent payable.
Since the appellant neither deposited rent nor filed the application within the statutory time, he could not claim the benefit of proviso to Section 7(2), which allows discretionary extension by the Civil Judge only when the twin conditions are first met.
The Court held that compliance under Section 7(1)(a)(b)(c) and the first part of Section 7(2) is mandatory. Failure to do so triggers Section 7(3), resulting in the tenant’s defence against eviction being struck off.
In this case, the application was filed with a 17-day delay (on 14.11.2022), making the tenant ineligible for protection. Consequently, the appeal was dismissed, reaffirming that timely deposit of rent and filing of the application are strict statutory requirements under the WBPT Act.