NASIM HASSAN SHAH, J.--This is a petition for Special Leave to Appeal against an order of the Lahore High Court, dated 7-3-1978, dismissing the petitioner's second appeal under the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 (hereinafter called the Ordinance) thereby maintaining the orders of his ejectment passed by the Rent Controller and the Additional District Judge.
2. The ejectment which was sought on the ground of default in the payment of rent was resisted by the petitioner who also maintained that the rent agreement between' the parties stipulated a notice before his eviction which had not been given and even otherwise the Rent Controller had no jurisdiction to entertain and determine the ejectment application under the Ordinance because the petitioner had installed a Saw Mill which rendered the rented premises into a factory not attracting the provisions of the Ordinance.
3. Both the learned Rent Controller and the learned Additional District Judge have found that the petitioner was a defaulter and repelling the other contentions raised by him ordered his ejectment.
These orders have been maintained by a learned Single Judge of the High Court who, inter alia, held that under the law it was not necessary to give the petitioner a month's notice before commencing ejectment proceeding against him nor was there such a stipulation in the rent agreement relied upon in the case.
4. Before us, the grounds taken before the High Court are reiterated. On the point of ouster of jurisdiction of the Rent Controller, reliance is placed on Messrs Rahman Cotton Factory v. Messrs Nichimen Co. Ltd. PLD 1976 SC 781. The authority cited by the petitioner is clearly distinguishable because, in that case, a ginning factory equipped with machinery for processing and ginning cotton was leased out as a factory, whereas in the present case, it is established as a fact that, the petitioner was a tenant of the rented land and some superstructure thereon without any machinery. He is, therefore, tenant at the most of either rented land or non-residential building which comes within the ambit of the Ordinance and the Rent Controller would have jurisdiction in the matter.
As regards the requirement of a notice prior to the institution of ejectment proceedings, the rent agreement, as found by the Courts below, did not stipulate any such condition. Besides, under section 13 of the Ordinance if default in the payment of rent is alleged and proved, it gives an independent right to the landlord to get an order, for the ejectment of his tenant.