NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of a man from Vadodara who was fighting to regain possession of a shop he had rented out in 1958 for a monthly rent of Rs 30. Anil Kumar Dhekle had to fight a legal battle for nearly 40 years: he first moved court in 1978 after the tenant defaulted on payment from 1974 to 1976.The Supreme Court has directed the tenant to hand over possession of the shop in Vadodara within two months. Although the apex court sympathised with the shopowner for fighting such a protracted legal battle to get his property back, the court itself took 10 years to decide on his plea.“It is unfortunate that the appellant-landlord is litigating for more than four decades to get back possession of his own premises and, therefore, the respondent-tenants are directed to hand over vacant possession of the premises immediately,” a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R Banumathi said. Dhekle received rent regularly till 1974 and after the tenant failed to pay till 1976, the landlord approached court, which passed an order in Dhekle’s favour in 1981. But the district court set it aside in 1983. Thereafter, Dhekle approached the Gujarat high court the same year, which in 2003 upheld the district court’s order and allowed the tenant to hold possession by paying monthly rent.Granting him relief, the court said, “The findings and the reasonings recorded by the high court are not based on evidence and cannot be sustained. As rightly held by the trial court, the tenants are liable to be evicted... The respondent or other person( s) are directed to hand over vacant possession within two months.”