JUDGMENT : Pius C. Kuriakose, J. The tenant has filed a petition under Article 227 seeking a direction to the Rent Control Court, Kochi to consider and dispose of Ext.P5 interlocutory application filed by him before that court takes up Ext.P3 Rent Control Petition for enquiry, According to Mr. T.A. Narayanan Nair, the learned counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner has denied the title of the landlord and therefore, the Rent Control Court is bound to decide the question of landlord's title before the Rent Control petition is enquired into on its merits. Ext.P3 is the Rent Control Petition and Ext.P4 is the statement of objections filed to the same by the petitioner. Ext.P5 is separate application in which the prayer is as follows;- “For the reasons stated in the accompanying affidavit, it is most humbly prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to decide as Preliminary point as to whether the claim of. title put forwarded by the 1st respondent herein, in respect of the disputed house is bonafide or not and refer the dispute to a civil court." 2. Section 11(1) and particularly the second proviso thereto is the relevant statutory provision. It is provided therein that when the tenant denies the landlord's title or claims a right of permanent tenancy, the Rent Control Court shall decide whether the denial of the claim is bona fide. 3. Title as envisaged by the second proviso to sub-section (3) of section 11 is not the paramount title. Instead, it is the title of the petitioner in the RCP as landlord. In other words, the title which is envisaged is mostly the existence of a landlord-tenant relationship between trie parties. If the tenant facing 3 petition for eviction under section 11 denies such a title in the landlord it is obligatory that the Rent Control Court should enquire Into that question preliminarily and enter a finding as to whether the denial is bone fide. We are informed that the RCP has been special listed for trial on 23.03.10. We, therefore, without examining the merits of the contentions raised by the petitioner through Ext. P5, are inclined to dispose of the Writ Petition at this stage itself in the following terms:- 4. We are informed that the RCP has been special listed for trial on 23.03.10. We, therefore, without examining the merits of the contentions raised by the petitioner through Ext. P5, are inclined to dispose of the Writ Petition at this stage itself in the following terms:- 4. The Rent Control Court, Kochi which is presently in seizin of R.C.P. 18/09 is directed to consider Exts.P3 and P4 and decide first whether Ext.P5 raises a plea of denial of landlords title as envisaged by the second proviso to sub section 1 of section 1 i and if it is seen that it does involve such a plea of denial of title, will take up Ext.P5 immediately and thereafter hold enquiries, if necessary, and enter a finding as to whether the denial of title, if any, raised by the petitioner is a bona fide one. In other words, the procedure as contemplated by the second proviso to sub section (1) of section 11 will be followed by the learned Rent Control Court strictly in the light of the binding judicial presidents governing the issue including the judgment of this Court in Aboobacker v. Girija ( 1995 (1) KLT 553 . 5. In view of the above direction, we further, direct the Rent Control Court not to take up the RCP for trial till such time as a decision is taken on Ext. P5. Issue copy today itself.