1994 CLC 578 KARACHI-HIGH-COURT-SINDH

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SHABBIR VS ABDUL HANNAN Sindh Rented Premises Ordinance 1979--10 , Sindh Rented Premises Ordinance 1979 Ss.10 & 15(2)(ii)---Default in payment of rent---Landlords had alleged that tenant was a persistent defaulter in payment of rent of premises and had failed to pay rent for the last 85 months---Tenant denying default had contended that landlords had never issued any receipt from the very beginning of tenancy--Rent Controller dismissed ejectment application filed by landlord against tenant holding that landlords had not produced a single counterfoil of rent receipts in order to prove that rent receipts were ever issued by them to tenant and- if tenant had failed to pay rent for more than 6 years, why landlords had remained silent and why they did not serve tenant with notice and filed ejectment application against tenant---Held, reasoning of Rent Controller was untenable and-perverse in view of the fact that a landlord was not required to issue rent receipts which necessarily must have counterfoils---No adverse presumption could be inferred against landlords because of non-existence of such counterfoils especially when case of landlords was not that they had been issuing rent receipts having counterfoils nor tenant took up plea that landlords used to maintain receipt books containing counterfoils---Indulgence shown by landlords in not taking steps for eviction of tenant for a long time on ground of non-payment of rent or their failure to serve tenant with a legal notice before filing ejectment application would not by itself give rise to presumption that tenant had been making payment of rent to landlords.