NRI property recovery: Court directs tenant to vacate property

“The only factum which is required to be proved is that he is an NRI and that he needs the house in question for his personal requirement. On the basis of this assertion he can get the possession back immediately.”

— Punjab and Haryana High Court

PRAVASISAMWAD.COM

As a matter of great relief to the Non-Resident-Indians (NRIs) who are victims of property grabbing by tenants due to their non-presence in India, the Punjab and Haryana High Court made it clear that an NRI is not required to show any bona-fides to get his property vacated.

“The only factum which is required to be proved is that he is an NRI and that he needs the house in question for his personal requirement. On the basis of this assertion he can get the possession back immediately,” the court said.

NRI Harcharan Singh was running from pillar to post to get back his house in which a tenant was living for years. He had filed an eviction petition before the Rent Controller claiming that he needed the house for his own use after returning from abroad, The Indian Express reported.

Rent Controller, NRI Cases, Jalandhar, had ordered the tenant to hand over the property to the landlord peacefully.

The tenant (Harjit Singh) moved to Punjab and Haryana High Court against the Rent Controller’s order of November 21, 2015.

“…within the specific knowledge of the NRI landlord only….No other requirement, like that of bona-fide personal necessity, as are required to be proved as a particular state of mind in case of an ordinary eviction petition under the Act, are applicable in case of the NRI landlord. NRI landlord is not required to show any bona-fide necessity as such.”

— Justice Rajbir Sehrawat

In High Court the tenant’s counsel took the stand that “the attempt of the landlord to get the tenant evicted is not bona-fide as he is having other properties in India, and landlord has not disclosed in the rent petition that he owned other ancestral properties in India as well.”

After hearing the matter, Justice Rajbir Sehrawat of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, said “In case of NRI landlord seeking eviction under Section 13-B of the Act, the only factum which is required to be proved is that he is an NRI and that he need the house in question for his personal requirement. On the basis of this assertion he can get the possession back immediately.”

“These facts need no special deposition or personal knowledge which could be within the specific knowledge of the NRI landlord only….No other requirement, like that of bona-fide personal necessity, as are required to be proved as a particular state of mind in case of an ordinary eviction petition under the Act, are applicable in case of the NRI landlord. NRI landlord is not required to show any bona-fide necessity as such. He is required to prove only the requirement by pleading that he is returning to India. With this assertion he can recover the possession immediately,” said the court and dismissed the plea of the tenant with directions to vacate the property.

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