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2010 SCMR 795

JAVED MASIH and others vs ADDITIONAL DISTRICT JUDGE, LAHORE and others

Citation2010 SCMR 795
CourtSupreme Court of Pakistan
Case No.Civil Appeal No,1517 of 2006
Date2010-01-12
Judge(s)Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Ghulam Rabbani, Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed
ResultAppeal dismissed

' CH. IJAZ AHMED, J.--- Necessary facts out of which the present appeal arises are that respondent No,3 filed eje&ment petition under section 13 of Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 against the appellants before the Rent Controller, Lahore, on the ground of default in payment of rent.

Appellants/defendants filed written statements and denied the relationship of landlord and tenant and also stated in reply to the ejectment petition that the rented premises are jointly owned by three persons, namely, Taj Muhammad, Nazir Ahmed and Ali Jan. The property in question was sold by Taj Muhammad and Nazir Ahmad vide agreement to sell dated 18-6-1997 to appellant No,3 and on failure of the vendor to execute a registered sale-deed a suit for specific performance was filed.

Out of the pleadings of the parties the learned Rent Controller had framed issue qua existence of the landlord and tenant relationship inter se between the parties. The learned Rent Controller after recording the evidence of the parties dismissed the ejectment petition vide order dated 5-3-2003 by holding that no relationship of landlord and tenant existed between the parties. Respondent No,3 being aggrieved filed an appeal before the learned Additional District Judge who vide order dated 12-12-2003 accepted the appeal and remanded the case to the Rent Controller by observing that relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties existed. The Rent Controller directed the appellants to deposit the rent vide order dated 26-10-2004. The appellants failed to deposit rent in terms of order dated 26-10-2004, the learned Rent Controller had struck off right of defence of the appellants and passed the ejectment order against the appellants vide order dated 3-1- 2005. The appellants being aggrieved filed an appeal before the District Judge Lahore, who dismissed the same vide order dated 18-2-2005. Thereafter the appellants being aggrieved filed Writ Petition No,2981 of 2005 before the Lahore High Court, Lahore, which was dismissed. Thereafter the appellants filed C.P. No,1036-L of 2006 before this Court which was fixed for hearing on 6-9- 2006 and leave was granted in the following terms:--- "After considering the arguments of the learned Advocate Supreme Court for the petitioner and going through the record we are of the view that this case suffers from gross misapplication of mind, misconstruction of the documents, ignorance of the material documents and facts on record by all the three Courts who have proceeded to decide the case in a cursory and hasty manner.

' It was brought to the notice of the Rent Controller that the petitioners had filed a suit for specific performance of agreement to sell dated 18-6-1997 prior to filing of the ejectment application but this fact does not find mention in the order/judgment of any of the three Courts, which is very material factor for deciding the above issue.

' Leave to appeal is granted to the petitioners to re-examine and A reappraise the evidence on record for determination of the relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties."

' Hence the present appeal.

2. Learned counsel for the appellants submits that all the Courts below had erred in law to decide the case against the appellants without adverting to the evidence on record. Relationship of landlord and tenant had not existed between the parties and this fact was not scrutinized by all the Courts below in its true perspective.

3. We have given our anxious consideration to the contentions of the learned counsel for the appellants and perused the record. It is an admitted fact that in the first round of litigation before the first appellate Court the first appellate Court after re-evaluation of the evidence on record had given finding of fact against the appellants that the relationship of landlord and tenant had existed between the parties as is evident from para 6 of the judgment of the Additional District Judge dated 12-12-2003. It is also an admitted fact that appellants did not deposit rent in terms of order dated 26-10-2004 passed by learned Rent Controller under section 13(6) of the Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance. The learned Rent Controller had given various opportunities to the appellants to produce receipts qua depositing of rent in terms of order dated 26-10-2004 but the appellants had failed to produce the same in proof of compliance of the said order. Respondent No,3 had taken a specific plea in para 1 of the ejectment petition that predecessor-ininterest of the appellants had taken premises in question on rent from the predecessor-in-interest of respondent No,3 on 12-10-1991 and this fact was not denied by the appellants in reply to the ejectment petition as is evident from para 1 of the reply. It is pertinent to mention here that agreement to sell does not contain any clause that the appellants had taken possession of the premises in question in terms of agreement to sell. All the Courts below have given concurrent findings of fact after proper appreciation of evidence on record against the appellants. This Court, normally, does not interfere in the concurrent findings of fact arrived at by the Courts below while exercising power under Article 185(3) of the Constitution.

4. It is a settled principle of law that constitutional jurisdiction is a discretionary in nature. He who seeks equity must come with clean hands. In view of the conduct of the appellants as mentioned above we are not inclined to exercise our power under Article 185(3) of the Constitution. It is also a settled principle of law that this Court has no jurisdiction to substitute its own finding in place of finding of the Courts below while exercising power under Article 185(3) of the Constitution. See Ata Ullah Malik's case PLD 1964 SC 236. Learned High Court was justified to dismiss the Writ Petition which was filed by the appellants against the concurrent conclusions of the Courts below. The impugned judgment is in consonance with the law laid down by this Court in various pronouncements. See Muhammad Sharif's case PLD 1981 SC 246 and Abdul Rehman Bajwa's case PLD 1981 SC 522. The learned counsel for the appellants has failed to point out any piece of evidence which was misread or non-read by the Courts below. As mentioned above this Court would not normally go behind a concurrent finding of fact recorded by the Courts below, unless it can be shown that the finding is on the face of it against the evidence or so patently improbable or perverse that to accept it could amount to perpetuating a grave miscarriage of justice, or if there has been any miss-application of a principle relating to appreciation of evidence, or finally, if the finding could be demonstrated to be physically impossible. This being the practice and the rule of the. Court in civil appeals, the burden lies heavily on the appellants to show that concurrent findings recorded by the High Court are not sustainable on the record and should be interfered by us. The learned counsel of the appellants has failed to bring the case in the said parameters. Even otherwise the learned counsel for the appellants has failed to raise any substantial question of law of public importance. The appeal has no force and the same is dismissed with costs.

Cited by 3 cases

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