Tenant Can Never Become Property Owner, Despite Prolonged Stay

Can a tenant, after decades of accepting landlord's title and paying rent, later dispute such landlord's ownership over the property? The Supreme Court (“the Court”) addressed this recurring question in landlord-tenant disputes in a recent matter of Jyoti Sharma v Vishnu Goyal¹. The Court firmly held in the negative and noted that a tenant who has entered the premises under the landlord's permission and has continuously paid rent cannot subsequently challenge the landlord's title, especially where a probated Will supports the claim.

Background

The tenancy in question began in 1953, when the tenants' (“Defendants”) father took a small shop on rent from Ramji Das, the father-in-law of the current owner (“Plaintiff”). Rent was regularly paid to Ramji Das and later to his son, the Plaintiff's husband. Ramji Das had then executed a Will in the year 1999 bequeathing the shop to his daughter-in-law, i.e., the Plaintiff soon after which he passed away. The Plaintiff