Facts: The applicant/landlord filed an interim application seeking deposit of market rent at Rs. 5,55,000/- per month from October 2007. The civil revision application filed by the tenant, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), was admitted on 23 June, 2010. The landlord waited 13 years to file the interim application.
Procedural Posture: This is an interim application within a civil revision application before the High Court of Judicature at Bombay. The interim application was filed by the landlord seeking deposit of market rent during the pendency of the revision application.
Issue: Is the landlord's interim application for deposit of market rent maintainable when filed 13 years after the admission of the tenant's civil revision application, especially when the revision application is ripe for final hearing?
Holding: No, the interim application is not maintainable and is dismissed.
Reasoning: The Court relied on the principle established in Atma Ram Properties (Supra), stating that an interim application for fixing market rent/compensation should be preferred within a reasonable time after the appeal is admitted and stay is granted to the execution of the eviction decree. The Court reasoned that waiting 13 years, especially when the Civil Revision Application is ready for final hearing, is not a reasonable time. Granting the interim relief at this stage would amount to modifying the order passed while admitting the Civil Revision Application. The liberty granted to the landlord in 2010 to file an application for setting the terms for continuation of applicants on the suit property, though without a specified time limit, cannot be stretched to 13 years.