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Whether grand children can be treated as tenant when their p

Whether grand children can be treated as tenant when their parents are alive?

After death of his mother, the plaintiff was paying rent and he was accepted to be tenant in respect of suit premises. The learned counsel for the defendant no.1 contends that the defendant no.1 would be included within the definition of 'Tenant' in view of the language of clause (d). On careful perusal of this clause, it would appear that on the death of the tenant, the members of the tenant's family, who were residing in the premises would be deemed to be tenants. Question is who are the members of the family. Mother of the plaintiff was tenant and naturally, the members of her family would be her husband and children, who were residing with her. Plaintiff was the son and he was residing with mother as a member of her family. His children could not be treated as members of the family of his deceased mother and, therefore, the defendant no.1 being her granddaughter could not be treated as a member of her family. Therefore, in my opinion, when the tenant was living with her children, at the time of her death, her grandchildren can not be treated as members of her family and the tenancy can not be deemed to have been transferred to them. However, if the children of the tenant are not alive or not living with him/her for any reason, but the grandchildren are living with him/her, in such a case, the grandchildren may be treated as members of the family of the tenant but that is not the case in the present matter. Therefore, on death of the mother of the plaintiff, he would be treated or deemed to be tenant and he has been rightly accepted as such, by the landlord. His daughter, who was just aged about 4 years at the time of death of her grandmother could not be deemed as tenant in respect of suit premises on death of her grandmother. It is the responsibility of the parents to take care of their minor children but after children have attained the majority, children do not get legal rights to reside in the personal property of parents. They can live in the house of the parents only with consent of the parents and not otherwise.

In both these matters, it would appear that children of the deceased tenant were held to be members of the family of the deceased tenant. The learned counsel could not point out any authority wherein grandchildren were also treated as the members of the family of the deceased tenant, particularly, when the deceased tenant had left behind his own children, who were living with him as the members of his family. Therefore, these authorities do not come to the rescue of the defendant no.1.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY

Appeal From Order No. 966 of 2011 with Civil Revision Application No. 34 of 2011 With Civil Application No. 1286 of 2011

Decided On: 03.02.2012

Kashmira Robert Lobo Vs. Soli Bahadurji Batiwala

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

J.H. Bhatia, J.

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