For more than eight years, an old tenant of a house in Surendranagar which was badly damaged in the earthquake in 2001 has been fighting a legal battle to get his house repaired.

In his fresh attempt, tenant Manharsinh Parmar (75) has filed a petition before the Gujarat High Court for the implementation of the order passed by the HC earlier whereby the court had ordered the district collector to take steps as per the provisions of the Bombay Rents, Hotel & Lodging Housing Rates Control Act, 1947 (Bombay Rent Act).

As per the provisions of the Bombay Rent Act, if the landlord fails to get such damaged house repaired, the district collector has to take the possession of the house from the landlord after giving him compensation and get it repaired.

According to Parmar’s petition before the court of Justice R R Tripathi, the house in which he had been living for around 28 years as tenant was heavily damaged in the 2001 earthquake.

And subsequently he had to shift to some relative’s place. However, when the landlord did not get him the house repaired, he filed a civil suit in the subordinate court in the Surendranagar district to get the landlord repair the house.

Though Parmar lost the civil suit and an appeal in the subordinate courts, he later filed a writ petition in the HC to direct the authorities get the house repaired or rebuilt. The HC, in 2005, passed an order and directed the district collector to discharge his statutory obligation without being influenced by the orders passed by the subordinate courts.

... contd.