Facts
The appeal was against the decision of the High Court to uphold as valid the Government Notice No 41 of 1992 issued byt the Minister for Lnads, Housing and Urban Development under s 2(1)(b) of the Rent Restriction Act, 1984 exempting the National Housing Corporation from all or any of the provisions of the Act. The High Court held that Government Notice No 41 of 1992 was both ultra vires and constitutional.
Held:
(i) The Government Notice No 41 of 1992 does not and did not intend to grant arbitrary powers to the National Housing Corporation to increase rent.
(ii) The National Housing Corporation cannot arbitrarily raise rent beyond economic rates, if it does, tenants can seek redress in the ordinary courts.
(iii) The Government Notice No 41 of 1992 does not violate the concept of equality before the law enshrined in article 13 of the Constitution.
(iv) The Rent Restriction Act 1984 under s 2(1)(b) empowers the Minister responsible for housing to exempt any premises or class of premises from the provisions of the Act and the premises exempted by Government Notice No 41 of 1992 are covered under the description any.
(v) The order in Government Notice 41 of 1992 is constitutional and ultra vires as the Minister did only what he is allowed and empowered to do by the Rent Restriction Act, 1984, namely to exempt the premises owned by the specified parastatals from the provisions of the act.
(vi) The exemption order by the Minister was perfectly valid and lawfully made under the validly delegated authority and therefore the new rents imposed by their landlord are valid.
Case Information
Appeal dismissed.
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