' Mst. Noor Bibi and her son Muhammad Aslam, owners of the property in dispute which was being used for running a nationalised school, instituted an ejectment proceeding on the grounds of personal use and default. The issue relating to personal use was decided in their favour whereupon an ejectment order was passed by the Controller on 14th May, 1979. The Government of the Punjab brought an appeal but the same failed before the Additional District Judge, Faisalabad, on 1st December, 1980. Herice this writ petition.
2. It appears that both parties had led evidence on the issue relating to personal use. The case of the landlord was that they were living in the house of Muhammad Shafi, husband of Ms,. Noor Bibi and that the marriage of her son Muhammad Aslam was being delayed for lack of accommodation. Both the Courts below after considering the evidence held the requirement of the landlord to be bona fide.
3. The question of bona fide requirement of the premises by the landlords is, in the circumstance, one of fact and the concurrent decision reached thereon by the Courts below hardly calls for interference in the constitutional jurisdiction. Learned counsel for the petitioners has, however, urged that as the property was being used for a school which was a non-residential purpose, the landlord could not seek the ejectment for occupying the premises for residential purpose. The definition of non-residential building as given in section 2 (d) of the Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance (VI of 1959) is "a building being used solely for the purpose of business or trade". It is not established that the running of a school by the Government was either a business or trade. In any case the property if originally a residential one could not be held to be non- residential merely because it was being used for a non-residential purpose. In this connection, reference may be made to Raja Qurban Khan v. Begum. M. Sharif (1).
4. Learned counsel for the petitioners then has prayed that in case the writ petition be not accepted, the Government be allowed 4 months time to make alternative arrangement.
Considering the difficulty of the Government, the request is not unreasonable. While, therefore, dismissing the writ petition, I direct that the petitioners shall vacate the building on the expiry of 4 months' time from today. {{FOOT NOTE}}
(I) 1980 SCM R 590 {{FOOT NOTE}}