Civil court in Pune says Cafe Toons owner wrongfully evicted

The person running Cafe Toons, a bar on MG road, was wrongfully evicted by the owner of the land where it is situated, a civil court observed on Saturday.

The order to that effect was issued by joint civil judge RM Shaikh on Saturday and was made available on Tuesday.

Ramesh Khole, who has been the proprietor of the establishment for the past eight years at least, was evicted from the premise by the land owners on January 12, 2019 and the name of the establishment was changed to ‘Cafe Tunes’.

The land owner claimed that he ran a business in the name of Flora, which he later renamed as Hotel Toons Fast Food and that in 2011, he handed over the running of the fast food joint to Khole.However, Khole has claimed that he has been a tenant of the area since 1994. He also said that he has been running the business uninterrupted since 2004 in the name of Cafe Toons.

The land owner claimed that he refused to extend the lease after 2016 as Khole allegedly failed to keep proper accounts of the business. However, the court observed that the land owner was never in possession of any business in the property.

“It is also noted here that the defendant has absolutely failed to produced any documentary evidence to show that he was running any business by name ‘Flora’ and thereafter started business of ‘Hotel TOONS’,” reads the order. “This lacuna on the part of defendant makes it clear that he was not in possession of suit property and he was not running his hotel in the suit premises,” it further observes.

“The cause of action arose when plaintiff (Khole) was dispossessed on January 12, 2019 by the children of defendant (land owner), his relatives and other goons. The plaintiff was kidnapped andgiven serious threats by the family members of the defendant. The matter went upto lodging FIR in the police station and redressal to the commissioner of police,” reads a part of the order.

Khole had approached the civil court with a complaint of wrongful eviction in January. The land owners had filed an application seeking dismissal of Khole’s complaint. However, the court dismissed the application and observed that the eviction was done on January 12 without following due process prescribed under the law.

First Published:
Jul 24, 2019 16:15 IST

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