Bombay High Court: public authority need not prove bona fide need to evict unauthorised occupants

Deciding three connected writ petitions, the Bombay High Court held that the Reserve Bank of India did not have to establish any ground, such as its own bona fide requirement, to evict three Reunion Group companies from premises in Mumbai's Amar Building under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971. Justice Sandeep V. Marne rejected the companies' challenge to eviction orders passed by the Estate Officer in 2013, which the City Civil Court had upheld on appeal. Relying on Supreme Court authority, the Court held that the Public Premises Act, unlike rent-control legislation, gives no protection to an occupant once the authority under which they occupied the premises is terminated: the occupation becomes automatically unauthorised the moment the tenancy or licence is validly determined, and the owner need not justify why it wants the premises back.

The companies' plea that security reports relied on by the Estate Officer were stale and inadmissible was also rejected, since the principles of natural justice, not the Evidence Act, govern such quasi-judicial proceedings, and the reports were properly proved. The petitions were dismissed after 65 years of continued occupation, though the Court extended interim protection by four weeks to let the companies approach a higher forum.