Udai Pratap Singh and Others vs Gulab Das and Others

Leave granted.

Appellant is the landlord. He had instituted release application on the ground of personal requirement u/s 21(1)(a) of the U.P. act No. XIII of 1972. The Trial Court decreed the petition. However, the Lower Appellate Court dismissed the release application. Aggrieved by the decision of the Lower Appellate Court, the landlord moved the High Court in Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 15464 of 1984. By the impugned order the High Court has dismissed the Writ Petition only on the ground that the matter had been pending litigation for 22 years. In our view, the High Court ought not to have dismissed the Writ Petition, particularly, when the matter was pending in the High Court from 1984. The High Court should have decided the matter on merits. It has not done so. One cannot find fault with the petitioner for pendency of the writ petition from 1984.

In the circumstances, the impugned order is set aside and the matter is remitted to the High Court for de novo consideration in accordance with law.

We request the High Court to expeditiously hear and dispose of the pending Writ Petition within a period of six months. The appellant is directed to take all necessary steps to bring the legal representatives of the contesting respondent on record.

Civil Appeal is accordingly disposed of with no order as to costs.