Summary: In a recent court decision, landlords Amir Khan and Sajid Khan were granted orders to remove tenants from a property in Delhi's Chandni Mahal. The case focused on who really owned the property and the landlords' need for a place to live.
Amir Khan and Sajid Khan, along with their families, asked the court in 2013 to make the tenants leave two floors of a property in Hauz Sui Walan, Chandni Mahal, Delhi. They said they needed more space for their families to live. Amir's family lived in a temporary shelter, while Sajid's family rented a single room. They claimed they had no other place to go.
The tenants, led by Aziz Ur Rehman, tried to defend themselves. They said they owned the property because of a deal made in 1996 with the previous owner, Mr. Abdul Rasheed. They argued that this deal, along with paying bills like house tax, made them the rightful owners.
"The tenant also denied ever paying any rent to the landlords and said that the Eviction Requests were not valid."
In 2019, the Rent Controller initially agreed with Amir Khan and Sajid Khan, saying the tenants couldn't prove they owned the property and the landlords had better proof of ownership. The tenants' documents were not enough to prove ownership.
The tenants asked the court to review the decision, arguing that the 1996 deal changed their status from tenants to owners. In 2022, the Rent Controller changed the original decision, allowing the tenants to defend their case.
On February 18, 2026, Justice Saurabh Banerjee of the Delhi High Court canceled the 2022 change. The court found that the review was wrongly allowed, as it looked at issues that were already decided without any new evidence.
"The Rent Controller was not in a position to give a different opinion from the earlier one just because it seemed possible."
The court brought back the 2019 orders, requiring Aziz Ur Rehman and his co-tenants to leave the property within six months. This decision shows how important it is to have clear proof of property ownership and the limits of asking for reviews in eviction cases.
