BASHIR AHMAD vs ABDUL HAMEED AND ANOTHER
This petition arises from an order of the Lahore High Court dismissing in limine a civil revision filed by the petitioner tenant. The petitioner had instituted a civil suit seeking a declaration that eviction orders passed against him by the Rent Controller and confirmed up to the Supreme Court were illegal and void, alleging fraud and that respondents were not the owners. The trial court rejected the plaint under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908, and the lower appellate court upheld the decision. The core legal question was whether a tenant, whose eviction order had been finalized by the Supreme Court and who unsuccessfully claimed adverse possession, could subsequently challenge those final judicial determinations through a fresh civil suit. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, holding that the attempt to reopen settled issues regarding tenancy and ownership constituted a classic misuse of legal process. The Court reaffirmed that such suits are barred by law and initiated contempt proceedings against the petitioner, alongside issuing show-cause notices to the drafting lawyers.
- Whether a tenant can challenge a final eviction order confirmed by the Supreme Court by filing a subsequent civil suit for declaration?
- Can a plaint be rejected under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 when it attempts to relitigate issues already closed by the Supreme Court?
- Whether repeatedly agitating settled questions of tenancy and adverse possession amounts to an abuse of the process of the court?
- Order VII Rule 11, Code of Civil Procedure 1908
ORDER
1. ' MUHAMMAD AFZAL ZULLAH, J.-This petition is directed against Order dated 12-2-1984 of the Lahore High Court ; whereby a Civil Revision arising out of a suit filed by the petitioner (tenant) to set at naught a final judgment of the Supreme Court confirming the orders of his eviction, was dismissed in limine.
2. ' The brief facts relevant for disposal of this petition as noted in the High Court Order are that "the petitioner, who is a tenant of a shop had been ordered to be ejected therefrom by the Rent Controller, as per his order dated 6th July, 1980. The petitioner challenged that order further but failed when his appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 19th June, 1982. He then filed a suit for a declaration that the orders passed by the Rent Controller and those up to the Supreme Court are illegal, void and inoperative against his rights because the respondents were not the owners of the shop in dispute. He alleged fraud etc. In the plaint. The trial Court, however, rejected his plaint under Order VII, rule 11, C. P. C. And the District Judge upheld the same in appeal".
3. As the record shows this is the third time that the petitioner has sought from this Court a finding that he had become an owner of the property by adverse possession. In the first round it was found that he was a tenant. In the second round it was found that he being a tenant, having repudiated his position as tenant and also having failed to pay the rent, was rightly ordered to be ejected. This time the petitioner sought to agitate the same question but in an absolutely unwarranted manner by challenging the judgments of the High Court and the Supreme Court in the suit filed before a civil Court. The plaint was rejected under Order VII, rule 11.
4. ' We questioned the petitioner himself regarding the grounds on which he wanted to press the suit.
5. His answer is that he had become the owner of the property by virtue of his so-called adverse possession against the predecessors-in-interest of respondent No,
1. This issue was finally closed by the decision of the Supreme Court in the first round in C. P. No, 481 of 1979. The question of relationship of landlord and tenant between the petitioner and respondent No, 1 was finally decided against him by Supreme Court in an other round on 19-6-1983. The petitioner then filed an objection against execution and lost upto the High Court. Thereafter he again has tried to re-open the same question in a civil suit out of which this petition has arisen. It is a classic case of misuse of the procedures made available by the law of the land for genuinely aggrieved persons to seek remedies. There are several recent judgments of this Court whereby such approach to law and Courts has been disapproved. The reopening of the matter in this case has rightly been held to be barred by law. We accordingly while dismissing this petition issue notice to petitioner for contempt of this Court. Notice shall issue to the lawyers who drafted the petitioner's pleadings upto the Supreme Court in this last round of litigation to show cause as to why they should not be debarred from legal practice.
Cited by 4 cases
- MUHAMMAD MATLOOB Versus QURBAN HUSSAIN SHAH 2021 YLRN 97
- Mst. ALLAH RAKHI through Attorney vs AFTAB KHALIL and 12 others 1999 MLD 595
- MUHAMMAD SALIM and others vs D.C.O. and others 1994 MLD 295
- GUL ZARAHMAD vs PROVINCE OF PUNJAB and others 1986 MLD 1961