M. MUHAMMAD SHARIF vs M. S. SULTAN
This petition for leave to appeal arose from an ejectment application filed under Section 13 of the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance 1959 by the respondent-landlord, seeking the tenant-petitioner's eviction from a shop on the ground of personal requirement for his son. The Rent Controller ordered the petitioner's eviction, and both the Additional District Judge and the High Court dismissed the subsequent appeals, affirming the Rent Controller's order. The core legal question raised by the petitioner was whether the failure of the landlord's son (for whose benefit the shop was sought) to appear as a witness was fatal to establishing the personal requirement ground. The Supreme Court held that there is no statutory requirement mandating that the person for whose benefit the premises are required must be produced as a witness. The Court held that it is sufficient if enough evidence is brought on record to sustain the finding. Affirming the concurrent findings of fact below, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition, while granting the tenant four months to vacate.
- Is it mandatory for a landlord to produce the family member for whose personal use premises are sought as a witness in an ejectment petition?
- Can a finding of personal requirement under Section 13 of the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance 1959 be sustained on evidence provided by the landlord without calling the actual beneficiary?
- Will the Supreme Court interfere with concurrent findings of fact regarding personal requirement in rent matters without strong grounds?
- Section 13, West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance 1959
ORDER
1. ASLAM RIAZ HUSSAIN, J.-Muhammad Sharif petitioner seeks leave to appeal against an order of a learned Single Judge of the Lahore High Court dismissing his S. A. O. In a rent matter. The facts briefly are that M. S. Sultan respondent landlord filed an ejectment application under section 13 of the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 for the petitioner's eviction from a. Shop bearing No. K/28 in Teti Mohallah, Raza Shah Pehalvi Road, Rawalpindi. The main ground taken in the ejectment application was that of personal need of Farooq Sultan the son of the respondent- landlord. The learned Rent Controller decided the issue of requirement for personal use in the respondent and ordered the eviction of Muhammad Sharif- petitioner by an order dated 2nd of February, 1979. Aggrieved by the said order Muhammad Sharif filed an appeal which was dismissed by the learned Additional District Judge (111), Rawalpindi on 26th of October, 1978. The petitioner then filed a second appeal in the High Court which too was dismissed vide judgment dated 6th of March, 1979. Hence the present petition for leave to appeal.
2. The only ground urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner before us was that respondent's son Farooq Sultan, for whose benefit the petitioner was sought to be ejected from the shop in question, never appeared as a witness in support of the assertion that the same was required for his use. The learned counsel contended that the petitioner was thus deprived of the opportunity of testing the truth of the afore--mentioned assertion.
3. We feel that the contention is devoid of force. There is no require--ment of law that the person for whose benefit the premises are required to be vacated must be produced in support of the ejectment application. All that has to be seen in the present case is whether enough evidence has been brought on record by the applicant to sustain a finding of the requirement of the premises for the personal use of his son. The learned Rent Controller as well as the appellate Courts below have found the requirement in question to have been proved. The matter therefore stands concluded by a concurrent finding on a question of fact. No good ground has been urged to warrant interference with that finding.
4. The petitioner is however granted four months' time to vacate the shop subject to payment of the monthly rent before the 15th of each month.
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