Chapter VI RENT TRIBUNALS

27.

1. (1) The State Government may, by notification, constitute such number of Rent Tribunals at such places as may be deemed necessary by it.
2. (2) Where two or more Rent Tribunals are constituted for any area, the State Government may, by general or special order, regulate the distribution of business among them.
3. (3) A Rent Tribunal may consist of one or more members (hereinafter referred to as the Presiding Officer) to be appointed by the State Government in consultation with the High Court.
4. (4) No person shall be eligible to be appointed as Presiding Officer of the Rent Tribunal unless he is member of the Madhya Pradesh Lower Judicial Service having minimum five years experience as such.
5. (5) The State Government may, in consultation with the High Court, authorise the Presiding Officer of one Rent Tribunal to discharge the functions of the Presiding Officer of another Rent Tribunal also.

28.

1. (1) The State Government may, by notification, constitute such number of Appellate Rent Tribunals at such places as may be deemed necessary by it.
2. (2) The Appellate Rent Tribunal shall be a multi-member tribunal headed by a Principal Appellate Member, and the senior most judge shall function as Principal Appellate Member and shall have the power to transfer appeal cases from one member of the Appellate Rent Tribunal to another member whenever deemed necessary, and similarly the Principal Appellate Tribunal may on an application or suo motu transfer a . suit from one Rent Tribunal to other Rent Tribunal, and the presiding Appellate Tribunal and other Appellate Tribunals however shall function as independent Appellate Tribunals while deciding the cases under this Act, and all the members shall be appointed by the State Government in consultation with the High Court.
3. (3) No person shall be eligible to be appointed as Member of the Appellate Rent Tribunal unless he is

29. Till the constitution of the Rent Tribunals and Appellate Rent Tribunals, the State Government may in consultation with the High Court declare one or more judges of the Civil Court to function as Members of Rent Tribunal, and similarly the State Government in consultation with the High Court may declare one or more Additional District Judges to function as the Appellate Rent

30. Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for th time being in force, in the areas to which this Act extends, only the Rent Tribunal and no Civil Court shall have jurisdiction, except the jurisdiction of Rent Controlling Authority under Section 36, to hear and decide the applications relating to disputes between landlord and tenant and matters connected with and ancillary thereto covered under this Act :

Provided that the Rent Tribunal shall, in deciding such applications relating to tenancies and premises, give due regard to the provisions of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (No. 4 of 1882), the Indian Contract Act, 1872 (No. 9 of 1872) or any other substantive law applicable to such matter in the same manner in which such law would have been applied had the dispute been brought before a Civil Court by way of suit.

31.

1. (1) Subject to any rules that may be made under this Act, the Rent Tribunal and the Appellate Rent Tribunal shall not be bound by the procedure laid down by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (No.5 of 1908) but shall be guided by the principle of natural justice and shall have power to regulate their own procedure, and the Rent Tribunal shall follow the following procedure, namely :-
   • (a) the landlord or tenant may file an application before the Rent Tribunal accompanied by affidavits and documents, if any;
   • (b) the Rent Tribunal then shall issue notice to the opposite party, accompanied by copies of application, affidavits and documents;
   • (c) the opposite party shall file a reply accompanied by affidavits and documents, if any, after serving a copy of the same to the applicant;
   • (d) the applicant may file a rejoinder, if any, after serving the copy to the opposite party;
   • (e) the Rent Tribunal shall then fix a date of hearing and may hold such summary inquiry as it deems necessary.
2. (2) In every case before the Rent Tribunal and the Appellate Rent Tribunal the evidence of a witness shall be given by affidavit. However, the Rent Tribunal and the Appellate Rent Tribunal, where it appears to it that it is necessary in the interest of justice to call a witness for examination or cross-examination, such witness can be produced and may order attendance for examination or cross-examination of such a witness.
3. (3) The provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (No.5 of 1908) regarding service of summons shall be applicable mutatis mutandis for service of notice by the Rent Tribunal or Appellate Rent Tribunal.
4. (4) Every application or appeal, so far as possible shall be in the model forms as prescribed.
5. (5) The Rent Tribunal shall not ordinarily allow more than three adjournments at the request of a party throughout the proceedings and in case he decides to do so, it shall record the reasons for the same in writing and order the party requesting adjournment to pay the reasonable cost. (6)
   • (a) All applications under clauses (a), (b),
   • (c) and
   • (d) of sub-section
6. (2) of Section 18 shall be decided within 360 days of filing of application to the Rent Tribunal.
   • (b) Applications under clauses (e),
   • (f) and
   • (g) of sub-section
7. (2) of section 18 shall be decided within 240 days of filing of application to the Rent Tribunal : Provided that in case of special category of landlords listed in Schedule III the period shall be 180 days.
   • (c) Application under sub-section
8. (3) of section 26 shall be decide within 60 days from the date of filing application.

32.

1. (1) The Rent Tribunal and the Appellate Rent Tribunal for the purpose of discharging their functions under this Act, shall have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (No.5 of 1908) for the purposes of,
   • (a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;
   • (b) requiring the discovery and production of documents;
   • (c) issuing commissions for examination of the witnesses or documents;
   • (d) issuing commission for local investigation;
   • (e) receiving evidence on affidavits ;
   • (f) dismissing an application or appeal for default or deciding it ex-parte;
   • (g) setting aside any order of dismissal of any application or appeal for default or any other order passed by it ex-parte;
   • (h) execution of its order and decisions under this Act without reference to any civil court;
     • (i) reviewing its orders and decisions;
   • (j) any other matter which may be prescribed.
2. (2) Any proceeding before the Rent Tribunal or Appellate Rent Tribunal shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of sections 193 and 228, and for the purpose of section 196, of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (No. 45 of 1860) and the Rent Tribunal shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of section 195 and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (No.2 of 1974).
3. (3) For the purpose of holding any inquiry or discharging any duty under this Act, the Rent Tribunal may,
   • (a) after giving not less than twenty-four hours notice in writing, enter and inspect or authorise any officer, subordinate to him, to enter and inspect, any premises at any time between sunrise and sunset;
   • (b) by written order, require any person to produce for his inspection such books or documents relevant to the inquiry, at such time and at such place as may be specified in the order.
4. (4) The Rent Tribunal may, if he thinks fit, appoint one or more persons having special knowledge of the matter under consideration as an assessor or valuer to advise him in the proceeding before him.
5. (5) Any clerical or arithmetical mistake in any order passed by the Rent Tribunal or any other error arising out of any accidental omission may, at any time, be corrected by the Rent Tribunal on an application received by him in this behalf from any of the parties or otherwise.
6. (6) The Rent Tribunal may exercise the powers of a Judicial Magistrate First Class for the recovery of the fine under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (No. 2 of 1974) and the Rent Tribunal shall be deemed to be a Magistrate under the said Code for the purposes of such recovery.
7. (7) An order made by a Rent Tribunal or an order passed in appeal or revision, or review under this Chapter shall be executable by the Rent Tribunal as a decree of a civil court and for this purpose, the Rent Tribunal shall have the powers of a civil court.
8. (8) The Rent Tribunal may set aside any order passed ex-parte if the aggrieved party files an application and satisfies him that notice was not duly served or that he was prevented by any sufficient cause from appearing when the case was called for hearing.
9. (9) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, every order made by the Rent Tribunal shall, subject to decision in appeal, be final and shall not be called in question in any original suit, application or execution proceedings.

33.

1. (1) From every final order passed by the Rent Tribunal, an appeal shall lie to the Appellate Rent Tribunal, within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the premises is situated and such an appeal shall be filed within a period of thirty days from the date of final order along with copy of such final order.
2. (2) The Appellate Rent Tribunal, upon filing an appeal under sub-section
3. (1) shall serve notice, accompanied by copy of appeal to the respondent and fix a hearing not later than 30 days from the date of service of notice of appeal on the respondent and the appeal shall be disposed of within a period of one hundred and twenty days from the date of service of notice of appeal on the respondent.
4. (3) Where the Appellate Rent Tribunal considers it necessary in the interest of arriving at a just and proper decision, it may allow documents at any stage of the proceedings in appeal, however this facility would be available to the applicants only once during the hearing.
5. (4) The Appellate Rent Tribunal may in its discretion pass such interlocutory order during the pendency of the appeal, as it may deem fit. (5)
   • (a) While deciding the appeal, the Appellate Rent Tribunal after recording reasons therefor confirm, set aside or modify the order passed by a Rent Tribunal.
   • (b) The decision of the Appellate Rent Tribunal shall be final and no further appeal or revision shall lie against the order.
6. (6) On application of any of the parties and after notice to the parties and after hearing such of them as have desired to be heard, or of its own motion without such notice, the Principal Appellate Rent Tribunal may at any stage transfer any case from one Rent Tribunal to any other Rent Tribunal for disposal.
7. (7) Where any case has been transferred under sub-section (6), the Rent Tribunal to whom the case has been transferred, subject to any special direction in the order of transfer, proceed from the stage at which it was transferred.

34.

1. (1) The Rent Tribunal shall, on application of any party, execute in the manner prescribed, a final order or any other order passed under this Act by adopting any one or more of the following modes, namely :-
   • (a) delivery of possession of the premises to the person in whose favour the decision has been made;
   • (b) attachment and sale of the movable or immovable property of the opposite party;
   • (c) arrest and detention of the opposite party;
   • (d) attachment of any one or more bank accounts of the opposite party and satisfaction of the amount of order to be paid from such account;
   • (e) appointing any advocate or any other competent person including officers of the Rent Tribunal or local administration or local body for the execution of the order.
2. (2) The Rent Tribunal may take the help from the local government or local body or the local police for the execution of the final orders : Provided that the help of police shall be obtained subject to payment of such cost by the litigants as may be decided