Landlords’ emissary beats a hasty retreat at Rent Act seminar

MUMBAI, MARCH 14: Representatives of tenants turned verbally violent at a seminar on Rent Act organised by the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishtha...

MUMBAI, MARCH 14: Representatives of tenants turned verbally violent at a seminar on Rent Act organised by the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan and forced Madhav Pittie, representative of landlords, to end his speech and leave the hall on Saturday afternoon.

The seminar lost its seriousness as most of the speakers used the dais to make political statements and the crowd kept passing rude comments during the speeches of the opposite party. It was also clear that the tenants were divided amongst themselves, were not willing to believe the efforts made by the state government and only wanted to portray themselves as victims of the judiciary.

While Pittie was speaking, the organisers reminded him that the time allotted to him was over and he should wind up his speech. Even as Pittie agreed, a youth started shouting against him. Tenants, who formed a majority of the crowd, interrupted Pittie’s speech. Some of the slogans were “Itne saal jo pagri liya uska kya?,” “The landlords never pay for the maintenance”and so on.

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Forced to stop speaking for a few minutes, Pittie continued by saying, “It is unjust and unfair on the part of the landlords to interrupt my speech in such a manner. The Supreme Court judgement is also being dishonoured by all these people who are opposing its implementation.” Saying this, he walked out of the hall.

This continued, tenants kept shouting throughout the seminar and landlords occasionally replied. The former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, who was one of the speakers, became upset over the situation and said, “Tenants are in a majority in this meeting and their emotions are aroused. There are different views expressed about the building maintenance and other expenses by the tenants and the landlords. If the tenants have material on their hands which is strong enough to make a case, they should fight it out in the Supreme Court. Instead of shouting slogans and taking out morchas, it is better for the tenants to take the case in hands in the SC.”

Ramrao Adik, formerdeputy chief minister, said a lot of confusion was being created about the entire episode. He assured the tenants that they would not be thrown out on the roads as there was no such provision in the Rent Act and even the SC judgement did not say so. Adik advised the state government to come up with a practical solution to the problem.

A visibly agitated minister of state for Housing, Raj Purohit, started speaking in a raised voice as interruptions from the crowd continued. At one point he threatened, “I also can shout slogans. Either you speak or let me speak. I will not tolerate this anymore.” He said the state government will take every step to ensure tenants’ rights and at the same time will not cause any injustice to the landlords. He said he had been to Gujarat to talk to the chief minister and requested the Gujarat government to intervene in the case at the SC.