Section 5 of Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 - Unlawful Charges Not to Be Claimed or Received
Section 5 of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 regulates amounts that may be demanded or received in connection with a tenancy or sub-tenancy. In substance, it restricts rent above the statutory standard rent, premium or pugree, excessive advance rent, and consideration for relinquishment or transfer of tenancy, subject to the exceptions written into the section.
What Section 5 means
Standard rent: Section 5(1) bars a person from claiming or receiving rent above the standard rent, subject to the Act, even where a private agreement provides otherwise. The expression should be read with the Act's provisions dealing with standard rent and lawful increases.
Premium, pugree and additional consideration: Section 5(2)(a) prohibits a person from claiming or receiving a premium, pugree, or other cash or non-cash consideration in addition to rent for the grant, renewal or continuation of a tenancy or sub-tenancy.
Advance rent: Under Section 5(2)(b), a sum exceeding one month's rent cannot be claimed or received as advance rent unless the previous permission of the Controller has been obtained.
Payment for surrender or transfer: Section 5(3) also restricts a tenant, or a person acting on the tenant's behalf, from demanding or receiving payment for relinquishment, transfer or assignment of a tenancy or sub-tenancy.
Text of Section 5
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, no person shall claim or receive any rent in excess of the standard rent, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary.
(2) No person shall, in consideration of the grant, renewal or continuance of a tenancy or sub-tenancy of any premises,--
(a) claim or receive the payment of any sum as premium or pugree or claim or receive any consideration whatsoever, in cash or in kind, in addition to the rent; or
(b) except with the previous permission of the Controller, claim or receive the payment of any sum exceeding one month's rent of such premises as rent in advance.
(3) It shall not be lawful for the tenant or any other person acting or purporting to act on behalf of the tenant or a sub-tenant to claim or receive any payment in consideration of the relinquishment, transfer or assignment of his tenancy or sub-tenancy, as the case may be, of any premises.
(4) Nothing in this section shall apply--
(a) to any payment made in pursuance of an agreement entered into before the 1st day of January, 1939; or
(b) to any payment made under an agreement by any person to a landlord for the purpose of financing the construction of the whole or part of any premises on the land belonging to, or taken on lease by, the landlord, if one of the conditions of the agreement is that the landlord is to let to that person the whole or part of the premises when completed for the use of that person or any member of his family:
Provided that such payment does not exceed the amount of agreed rent for a period of five years of the whole or part of the premises to be let to such person.
Explanation. For the purposes of clause (b) of this sub-section, a "member of the family" of a person means, in the case of an undivided Hindu family, any member of the family of that person and in the case of any other family, the husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister or any other relative dependent on that person.
Exceptions under Section 5(4)
The prohibition is not absolute. Section 5(4) preserves the two statutory exceptions reproduced above: certain payments under agreements made before 1 January 1939, and qualifying construction-finance arrangements where the statutory conditions and five-year rent ceiling are satisfied.
Related provisions
Section 5 operates as part of the Act's broader rent-control framework. Readers should also consider Section 4 - rent in excess of standard rent not recoverable, Section 6 - standard rent, Section 6A - revision of rent, Section 7 - lawful increase and other charges, and Section 9 - fixation of standard rent by the Controller.
Practical legal effect
A tenancy agreement cannot by itself validate a demand that Section 5 prohibits. Whether a particular payment is prohibited, permitted as rent, covered by a lawful increase, or falls within an exception depends on the nature of the payment and the other applicable provisions of the Act. For a dispute involving actual premises, the territorial application of the Act and any applicable statutory exclusions should also be checked.