29. Rent Controllers.––

The Government may, by notification in the Government Gazette, designate as many Rent Controllers as it thinks fit, and define the local limits within which, each Rent Controller shall exercise the powers conferred, upon, or perform the duties assigned, to the Rent Controllers by or under the Act :

Provided that an officer designated as Rent Controller shall not in any case be less than the rank of,––

(i) an Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) in areas falling within the limits of Municipal Corporations ; and

(ii) a Tehsildar in areas falling within the limits of Municipal Councils or Municipal Committees, as the case may be :

Provided further that the Rent Controllers appointed under this section shall be designated from amongst the officers of the Revenue Department on cash neutral basis.

30. Jurisdiction for Rent Controller.––

Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, in the areas to which the Act extends, only the Rent Controller, and no Civil Court, shall have jurisdiction to hear and decide the petitions relating to disputes between landlord and tenant and matters connected with and ancillary thereto covered under the Act including tenancies and premises covered under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Act and those covered under 1 [the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882)] :

Provided that Rent Controller shall, in deciding such petitions relating to tenancies and premises covered under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Act or those covered under 1 [the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882)] have due regard to the provisions of 1 [the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882)], 2 [the Contract Act, 1872 (9 of 1872)] or any other substantive law applicable to such matter in the same manner in which such law would have been applied had the dispute been brought before a Civil Court by way of suit.

31. Procedure for Rent Controller and Appellate Rent Tribunal. ––

(1) Subject to any rules that may be made under this Act, the Rent Controller and the Appellate Rent Tribunal shall not be bound by the procedure laid down by 3 [the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908)] but shall be guided by the principle of natural justice and shall have power to regulate their own procedure. The landlord or tenant may file the petition before the Rent Controller accompanied by affidavits and documents, if any, and the following procedure, as far as may be practicable, shall be followed :––

(i) the Rent Controller shall issue notice to the opposite party, accompanied by copies of petition, affidavits and documents ;

(ii) the opposite party will file a reply accompanied by affidavits and documents, if any, after serving a copy of the same to the petitioner ;

(iii) the petitioner may file a rejoinder, if any, after serving the copy to the opposite party ; and

(iv) the Rent Controller will then fix a date of hearing and may hold such summary inquiry as it deems necessary.

(2) In every case before the Rent Controller and the Appellate Rent Tribunal, the evidence of a witness shall be given by affidavit. However, the Rent Controller and the Appellate Rent Tribunal, where it appears to it that it is necessary in the interest of justice to call a witness for examination or crossexamination and such witness can be produced, may order attendance for examination or cross-examination of such a witness.

(3) Every notice shall be served through process server of the Rent Controller, Appellate Rent Tribunal as well as by registered post acknowledgement due or through any other method as may be prescribed and the notice duly served by any of these methods shall be treated as sufficient notice.

(4) Every petition or appeal, as far as possible, shall be in the model forms as may be prescribed.

(5) The Rent Controller shall not ordinarily allow more than three adjournments at the request of a party throughout the proceedings and in case he decides to do so, he shall record the reasons for the same in writing and order the party requesting adjournment to pay the reasonable cost to the other party.

(6) The time period within which the Rent Controller and Appellate Rent Tribunal shall decide a petition shall be as follows:––

(i) all petitions under sections 9 and 10 for fixation or revision of rent, shall be decided within ninety days from the day of filing of petition by the tenant or landlord with the Appellate Rent Tribunal ;

(ii) all petitions under sub-section (2) of section 20 will be decided within thirty days of filing of application by the landlord or the tenant(s) ;

(iii) all petitions under sub-section (1) of section 21 will be decided within ninety days of application to the Appellate Rent Tribunal ; and

(iv) petitions under sub-clause II of section 21 will be decided within sixty days of application to the Rent Controller and the Appellate Rent Tribunal.

32. Powers of Rent Controller and Appellate Rent Tribunal. ––

(1) The Rent Controller and the Appellate Rent Tribunal for the purpose of discharging their functions under the Act, shall have the same powers as are vested in a Civil Court under 1 [the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (4 of 1908)] for the purposes of,––

(i) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath ;

(ii) requiring the discovery and production of document ;

(iii) issuing commission for examination of witness or documents ;

(iv) issuing commission for local investigation ;

(v) receiving evidence on affidavits ;

(vi) dismissing an application or appeal for default or deciding it exparte ;

(vii) setting aside any order of dismissal of any application or appeal for default or any other order passed by it ex-parte ;

(viii) for the execution of its orders and decisions under the Act like decree of a Civil Court without reference to any Civil Court ;

(ix) reviewing its orders and decisions ; and

(x) any other matter which may be prescribed.

(2) Any proceeding before the Rent Controller or Appellate Rent Tribunal shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of 2 [sections 193 and 228, and for the purposes of section 196, of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)] and the Rent Controller and the Appellate Rent Tribunal shall be deemed to be a Civil Court for the purposes of 1 [the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974)].

(3) For the purpose of holding an inquiry or discharging any duty under the Act, the Rent Controller or the Appellate Rent Tribunal may,––

(i) after giving not less than twenty four hours notice in writing, enter and inspect or authorize any officer, subordinate to him, to enter and inspect, any rental unit at anytime between sunrise and sunset ;

(ii) by written order, require any person to produce for his inspection such books or documents relevant to the inquiry, at such time and at such place, as may be specified in the order.

(4) The Rent Controller may, if he thinks fit, appoint one or more persons having special knowledge of the matter under consideration as assessor or valuer to advise him in the proceedings before him.

(5) Any clerical or arithmetical mistake in any order passed by the Rent Controller or the Appellate Rent Tribunal or any other error arising out of any accidental omission may, at any time, be corrected by the Rent Controller or the Appellate Rent Tribunal, as the case may be, on an application received by it in this behalf from any of the parties or otherwise.

(6) The Rent Controller may exercise the powers of a Judicial Magistrate for the recovery of the fine under the provisions of 1 [the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974)] and the Rent Controller shall be deemed to be a Magistrate under the said Code for the purposes of such recovery.

(7) An order made by a Rent Controller or an order passed in appeal or revision or review under this chapter shall be executable by the Rent Controller as a decree of a Civil Court and for this purpose, the Rent Controller shall have the powers of a Civil Court.

(8) The Rent Controller may set aside an order passed ex parte if the aggrieved party files an application and satisfies him/her that notice was not duly served or that he/she was prevented by any sufficient cause from appearing when the case was called for hearing.

(9) Save as otherwise expressly provided in the Act, every order made by the Rent Controller shall, subject to decision in appeal, be final and shall not be called in question in any original suit, application or execution proceedings.

(10) The Rent Controller shall have the power to effect conciliation between the parties in any case pending before it.

33. Appeal, Revision and Review. ––

(1) From every final order passed by the Rent Controller, an appeal shall lie to the Appellate Rent Tribunal and such an appeal shall be filed within a period of thirty days from the date of final order along with copy of such final order.

(2) The Appellate Rent Tribunal, upon filing an appeal before it under sub-section (1), shall serve notice, accompanied by copy of appeal to the respondent and fix a hearing not later than thirty days from the date of service of notice of appeal on the respondent and the appeal shall be disposed of within a period of one hundred and twenty days from the date of service of notice of appeal on the respondent.

(3) Where the Appellate Rent Tribunal considers it necessary in the interest of arriving at a just and proper decision, it may allow filing of additional affidavits or documents at any stage of the proceedings in appeal.

(4) The Appellate Rent Tribunal may, in its discretion, pass such interlocutory order during the pendency of the appeal, as it may deem fit.

(5) While deciding the appeal, the Appellate Rent Tribunal after recording reasons therefor, may––

(i) confirm, vary, set aside, reverse or modify the order passed by a Rent Controller ; and

(ii) if necessary, in the interest of justice, remand the case to the Rent Controller alongwith such direction as it may deem fit.

(6) The decision of the Appellate Rent Tribunal shall be final and no further appeal or revision shall lie against the order.

(7) On application of any of the parties and after notice to the parties and after hearing such of them, as have desired to be heard, or of its own motion without such notice, the Appellate Rent Tribunal may at any stage transfer any case from one Rent Controller to any other Rent Controller within the same district for disposal.

(8) Where any case has been transferred under sub-section (7), the Rent Controller to whom the case has been transferred, subject to any special direction in the order of transfer, shall proceed from the stage at which it was transferred.

34. Execution of the order. ––

(1) The Rent Controller shall, on application of any party, execute in the manner prescribed, a final order or any other order passed under the Act, by adopting any one or more of the following modes namely :––

(i) attachment and sale of the movable or immovable property of the opposite party ;

(ii) attachment of any one or more bank accounts of the opposite party and satisfaction of the amount of order to be paid from such account ;

(iii) attachment of a reasonable portion of salary and allowances of a Government servant or employee of any nationalized bank, local authority, university, corporation and Government company ;

(iv) appointing any advocate as commission on such remuneration as may be fixed or deputing any officer of the local administration or local body for the execution of the order ;

(v) delivery of possession of the rental unit to the person in whose favour the decision has been made.

(2) The Rent Controller may, in order to execute the final order or any other order passed under the Act, require the help from the local administration or local body or the police.

(3) The Rent Controller shall conduct the execution proceedings in relation to a final order or any other order passed under the Act in summary manner and dispose of the application for execution made under this section within thirty days from the date of service of notice on opposite party.