A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Dalveer Bhandari said this while rejecting the plea of a tenant, Vaishakhi Ram, who contended that the sub-tenants were his family members and as such, subletting the premises was legally valid.

Interpreting section 14 (1) (b) of the Delhi Rent Control Act 1958, the apex court said a tenant can be evicted if he had “Sublet, assigned or otherwise parted with the possession of the whole or any part of the premises without obtaining the consent in writing of the landlord.”

Referring to Ram’s claim that the sub-tenants were his family members, the bench said the mere fact that a

relative has chosen to reside with the tenant for the sake of convenience, will not make him a member of the family of the tenant in the context of the rent control legislation.

“Apart from the parents, spouse, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, if any other relative claims to be a member of the tenant’s family, some more evidence is necessary to prove they have always resided together as member of one family over a period of time,” the apex court said, recalling its earlier observation in the Kailash Bai Sukhram Tiwari case.