This is first rent appeal under section 21 of the Sindh Rented Premises Ordinance, 1979 (hereinafter called the Ordinance), directed against the order dated 11-12-1990, passed by the learned III-Senior Civil Judge and Rent Controller, Karachi South, in Rent Case No.2357 of 1985, whereby ejectment application filed by respondent No.1, under section 15 of the Ordinance was allowed and the appellant was directed to vacate the disputed remises within sixty days of the impugned order.
2. The facts giving rise to this appeal are that the respondents are owner/landlord and the appellant is tenant in respect of Room No.803, situated in Muhammadi House, I.I. Chundrigar Road.
Karachi, at a monthly rent of Rs.498.84, payable on or before 10th of each month. The appellant is defaulter in the payment of rent and has not paid the same since March, 1985, in spite of repeated demands. It is also alleged that the appellant had subletted the premises to respondent No.2 and thereby contravened the terms of tenancy.
3. The appellant filed written statement in the Court of learned Rent Controller in which he denied the allegation and stated that the respondent used to collect the rent of the demised premises after 6 or 7 months and that the appellant used to pay rent regularly, but after March, 1985, the respondents had not issued any receipt to the appellant, therefore, he is not defaulter at all. He further contended that after March, 1985 up to the filing of the written statement the rent has been paid but the respondents are not issuing any receipt to the appellant. The appellant also denied the allegation of subletting.
4. Manzoor A.I Samitio, Junior Executive and Rent Collector of respondent No. l filed affidavit-in- evidence on behalf of the landlord and Abdul Basit Mehta proprietor of appellant filed his affidavit in rebuttal. Both were cross-examined by the parties' counsel.
5. The learned Rent Controller on the basis of evidence produced by the parties and taking into consideration the arguments adduced by the learned counsel allowed the ejectment application on the ground of committing wilful default in payment of rent and passed the impugned order as stated above.
6. Mr. A.R. Mirza, learned counsel for appellant has contended that the rent application was filed by A.A. Munshi, Secretary of the respondents, who was not competent to file the same, therefore, the very ejectment application was not maintainable. He has further stated that there is no evidentiary value to the statement of Manzoor A.I Samitio, employee of the respondents who was not authorised to give the evidence. He has further argued that it was general practice between the parties that rent was being collected after issuance of bills for several months and this practice was never discontinued and was never notified as to be done away. According to him the appellant had not committed any wilful default.
7. Mr. Rehmat Ellahi, learned counsel for respondents has contended that the appellant neither in written statement nor in affidavit-in-evidence raised any plea that the rent case was filed by wrong person. No question was put regarding the maintainability or authority in the cross- examination of the respondents' witness, who is a proper person and used to collect the rent. Under Order 29, Rule 1, C.P.C. The ejectment application could have been filed by Manager of the Corporation. His further contention is that burden of proof lies on the appellant show that they had paid the rent within time and that there was a practice of receiving the rent in lumpsum for several months.
8. I have given full consideration to the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the entire material available before me. The appellant neither in the written statement nor in the affidavit-in-evidence filed by Abdul Basit Mehta, Proprietor has raised this plea that the ejectment application was filed by incompetent person. Even no such question was put in cross-examination to the witness of the respondents. Even otherwise the ejectment application was signed by Mr. A.A. Munshi, who is Secretary of the respondents-Company, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), and under Order 29, Rule 1, C.P.C., pleading could be signed and verified on behalf of the Corporation by its Secretary, therefore, there is no force in the contention of the appellant's counsel that the rent application was not maintainable.
9. Next question in this appeal would be whether the appellants have committed wilful default in payment of rent to the respondent. The respondent's witness namely Manzoor A.I Sameeto, who is junior executive (State Officer) as well as rent collector has clearly stated in his affidavit that the tenancy is month to month and the rent is payable on or before 10th of each English calendar month. According to him the appellant is the defaulter in payment of rent and has not paid the same since March, 1985. He has clearly denied the contention of the appellant that the rent used to be collected after every 6 or 7 months. He has also stated that the appellant in spite of demands and notices failed to pay the due rent. It is well-established law that it is the statutory obligation of the tenant to pay the rent of each month to the landlord. Even the appellant has failed to prove that there was no any mutual agreement between the parties to collect the rent after every 6 or 7 months. The respondent's witness had produced letter dated 21-7-1984 of the appellant showing that they had sent the rent for the month of July, 1984 through cheque. He has also produced several letters showing that the respondents had demanded rent from the appellant which had become due against them. The appellant's witness namely Abdul Basit Mehta in his evidence has produced the receipts as Exhs. O/4 to 0/12, and these documents prove that they used to pay rent monthly. This witness has also admitted that he had received the notices demanding the arrears of rent from respondents. Admittedly the appellant did not pay the rent from the month of March, 1985 up to October, 1985, i.e., rent for 8 months.