Building

Number of shops in building – Punjab Rent Act -- NRI Landlord – Contention that recourse could had to the provisions of Section 13-B only once which would support the theory that each shop room or other premises in the building would have to be treated as a separate unit and the landlord would be entitled to make a choice as to which of the units he wished to take possession of immediately, since the landlord had already obtained possession of a portion of the building, it must be deemed that he had exhausted his option as given under Section 13-B and in order to evict the other tenants from the premises in question, he would have to file regular eviction petitions before the Rent Controller concerned, who would have to deal with the same in the regular manner without resorting to the emergency provisions of Section 13-B of the 1949 Act – Contention repelled. Swami Nath v. Nirmal Singh, 2011(1) L.A.R. 425 (SC).

Punjab Rent Act -- Building means, any building or part thereof let out for any purpose whether being actually used for that purpose or not – Any part of the building let out shall be construed as separate building, hence two shops (called as rooms by the landlord) let out separately fall within the definition of building under Section 2(a) of the Act. Anima Biswas v. Gurbachan Singh, 2011(1) L.A.R. 209 (P&H).