MUHAMMAD HAYAT Versus BASHIR AHMED

ORDER

1. NASIM HASAN SHAH, J. --The petitioner is a tenant of a shop belonging to respondent No. 1. The said respondent No. 1 applied for the eviction of the tenant on the ground, inter alia, that he needed the same the bona fide for the use and occupation of his sons Shafiq Ahmed and Muhammad Shahid. The Rent Controller accepted the petition and ordered the ejectment of the petitioner/ tenant but on appeal the learned Additional District Judge accepted the tenant's appeal, reversed the said decision and rejected the ejectment petition. This order was challenged, in writ jurisdiction, by the landlord.

2. A learned Judge of the Lahore High Court accepted the landlords' writ petition and set aside the order of the Additional District Judge passed on appeal and restored the order of the Rent Controller ordering the ejectment of the petitioner. Hence this petition for leave to appeal by the tenant.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the findings of the learned Additional District Judge on appeal were final and could not be interfered with in writ jurisdiction.

4. This submission is correct, so far as it goes but where the Appellate Authority has based its decision on a misreading of evidence, such an order is not immune from interference in writ jurisdiction. As we agree with the High Court that the learned Additional District Judge had misread the evidence on the record, his findings which were based on the aforesaid misreading of evidence stood vitiated. Hence the High Court could have interfered with the order.

5. This petition, therefore, is without force and is dismissed accordingly.

6. M.I. /M-244/S Petition dismissed.