State insurer's eviction of a family firm quashed: turning a proprietorship into the family's own company is not subletting
A family business had rented two rooms in a Fort, Mumbai building since before 1947. The building later passed to a state-owned general insurer, whose Estate Officer ordered the family evicted in 1998 as 'unauthorised occupants'. The only ground was that the original proprietorship had been turned into a partnership and then a private company. On 28 September 2026, 24 years after the writ petition was filed, the Bombay High Court quashed the eviction.
This page records what the cited court, tribunal and government records say happened. Findings belong to the court or authority that made them; this register adds none of its own. Names of private individuals are withheld unless a naming gate clears them.
How we verify →Eviction quashed on 28 September 2026; a stay pending appeal was refused. Any appeal to the Supreme Court is not known.
What happened
The High Court recorded that the premises were let before 1947 to a proprietorship concern, which became a partnership with the proprietor's sons and, by a deed of assignment in 1971, a private limited company of the same family. The insurer argued this was subletting, since the assignment came after the General Insurance (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1971 took effect.
The Estate Officer passed an eviction order on 30 September 1998, which the Principal Judge of the Bombay City Civil Court confirmed on 31 January 2002. The family filed the writ petition in 2002.
Justice Rajesh S. Patil held that no third person had ever been brought into the firm or the company, that the tenant had not parted with possession for profit, and that the 2015 amendment changing 'may' to 'shall' in Section 5 of the Public Premises Act applies only prospectively.
The court quashed both the Estate Officer's decree and the City Civil Court's judgment, ordered the return of the family's bank guarantees, and refused the insurer's request to stay the judgment.
What the High Court held
“as there was no sub-letting, the petitioners can't be called as “Unauthorised Occupants” under the provision of P. P. Act”
Writ Petition No. 1158 of 2002, judgment pronounced 28 September 2026, para 28 — read the full text
Evicted for reorganising your own business
A public-sector landlord used its own Estate Officer to evict a tenant for changing the legal form of a family business. The family spent 28 years under the eviction order before it was quashed.
What we could not confirm
The firm and the family are named in the judgment; this register describes them generically. The insurer is a public-sector company and its Estate Officer acts under statute. LiveLaw reported the date as 3 October 2026; the judgment was pronounced on 28 September 2026.