(1) No landlord shall, without just or sufficient cause, cut off or withhold any of the amenities enjoyed by the tenant.
(2) A tenant in occupation of a building may, if the landlord has contravened the provisions of this section, make an application to the Controller complaining of such contravention.
(3) If the tenant satisfies the Controller that the amenities were cut off or withheld without just or sufficient cause, the Controller may pass an interim order, directing the landlord, to restore the amenities immediately, pending the inquiry referred to in sub-section (4).
Explanation.- An interim order may be passed under this sub-section without giving notice to the landlord.
(4) If the Controller on inquiry finds that the tenant has been in enjoyment of the amenities and that they were cut off or withheld by the landlord without just or sufficient cause, he shall make an order directing the landlord to restore such amenities.
(5) If any of the amenities enjoyed by the tenant are stopped by any person other than the landlord by reason of the landlord‟s failure to pay taxes or other charges, the tenant may pay such taxes or other charges and have the amenities restored and deduct from the rent the amounts so paid by him towards such taxes or other charges.
(6) The Controller may in his discretion direct that compensation not exceeding fifty rupees-
(a) be paid to the landlord by the tenant, if the application under sub-section (2) was made frivolously or vexatiously;
Landlord not to interfere with amenities enjoyed by the tenant.
[Act No. XV of 1960] 29
(b) be paid to the tenant by the landlord, if the landlord has cut off or withheld the amenities frivolously or vexatiously.
Explanation.- In this section the expression „amenities‟ include supply of water, electricity, passages, staircases, light, lavatories, lifts and conservancy or sanitary services.
15. Every order made under section 10, section 12, section 13 or section 14 and every order passed on appeal under section 20, or on revision under section 22 and every order as to costs under section 21 shall be executed by the Controller:
Provided that an order passed in execution under this section shall not be subject to an appeal, but shall be subject to revision under section 22.
16. The Controller shall summarily reject any application under sub-section (2), or sub-section (3) of section 10 or under section 12 which raises between the same parties or between parties under whom they or any of them claim, substantially the same issues as have been finally decided or as purport to have been finally decided, in a former proceeding under this Act or under any law corresponding thereto in force at the relevant time prior to the commencement of this Act.
17. Every order passed by a Controller or an appellate or revisional authority under this Act shall be pronounced in open Court on the day on which the case is finally heard, or on some future day of which due notice shall be given to the parties.
Decisions which have become final not to be reopened.
Execution of orders.
Orders of Controller, appellate and revisional authority to be pronounced in open court.
30 [Act No.XV of 1960]
18. No residential building shall be converted into a non-residential building except with the permission in writing of the Controller.
19. If a landlord fails to make necessary repairs to the building within a reasonable time after notice is given-
(a) by the authorised officer in respect of a building of which the Government shall be deemed to be the tenant under sub-section (6) of section 3;
(b) by the tenant in respect of any other building;
the authorised officer aforesaid may, in the case referred to in clause (a), make such repairs or have them made by the allottee and deduct the cost thereof from the rent payable for the building or ask the allottee to make such a deduction from the rent payable; and the Controller may, in the case referred to in clause (b), direct, on application by the tenant, that such repairs may be made by the tenant and that the cost thereof may be deducted by the tenant from the rent payable for the building:
Provided that the cost of repairs, and the deduction thereof which the authorised officer or the Controller, as the case may be, may authorise shall not exceed in any one year one-twelfth of the rent payable in respect of the building for that year.