Punjab Rented Premises Act, 2009 has been promulgated for regulating the relationship and disputes between landlords and tenants, which provides a mechanism for the settlement of such............

 PLD 2023 Lahore 225

Punjab Rented Premises Act, 2009 has been promulgated for regulating the relationship and disputes between landlords and tenants, which provides a mechanism for the settlement of such disputes in effective and expeditious manners. To achieve the said purpose special procedure has been laid down in the Act, requiring both sides (landlord and tenant) to file their claim and defense / leave to defend by giving full and fair disclosure on affidavit(s), at the time of filing pleadings. Where section 22(3) of the Act requires from defender of an ejectment petition that leave application should be accompanied by an affidavit of the defender and all relevant documents in his possession as well as affidavits of the witnesses, it is also made imperative, under section 19 of the Act, for one who is seeking ejectment that ejectment petition should contain concise statement of facts which must be accompanied by all relevant documents and affidavits of the witnesses. Upon filing of the pleadings, section 22 further lays down the procedure to be followed for grant or refusal of the leave application and the consequences of the same.

Section 19(3) & (4) of the Act requires the ejectment petitioner to provide all the documents in his possession as well as to append the affidavits of the witnesses that he intends to produce along with the ejectment petition. Section 22(3) of the Act imposes almost same conditions upon the defender of the ejectment petition to provide all the documents in his possession, affidavits of witnesses at the time of filing leave application.

Sub-section 6 of section 22 of the Act provides that if leave to contest is refused, the Rent Tribunal shall pass the final order that shows that rejection of leave and passing a final order are envisaged by the legislature as two independent eventualities. The leave rejection order itself is not envisioned as the only order in section 22(6) rather the final order is to follow such leave rejection. Further, the word “shall” is leading the words “pass the final order” in section 22(6) of Act, which is a command of law, leaving no option with the Rent Tribunals but to pass final order with respect to the matter of ejectment. The words used in the above provisions and the requirement, imposed on the parties, of appending “all relevant documents in their possession” are meaningful and it has direct nexus with the subject in hand. The purposes of requiring the parties to give disclosure on affidavits and providing all the documents in their possession is not merely to decide leave application but also to enable the Rent Tribunal to reach to the conclusion as to the matter of ejectment upon refusal of leave. If the leave is rejected or there is no leave filed, the Rent Tribunals are required to pass final order as to question of ejectment after applying judicious mind and keeping in view the pleadings supported by affidavit(s) and all the documents on record. However, when the leave has substance and it discloses sufficient ground(s) for production of oral evidence, the available affidavits can be treated as examination-in-chief, allowing the parties to cross-examine and to adduce evidence in the mode and manners provided in the Act.

Section 25 of the Act which is permitting the learned Rent Tribunal to direct the parties to adduce evidence starts with “at the time of grant of leave to contest” which confirms that the evidence can be only directed to be produced at the time of grant of leave, hence such exercise can be assumed only if the leave is granted. After rejection of the leave application soliciting the evidence, in my opinion, is not just defeating the object of the Act by prolonging the trials or the matter of ejectment, but at the same time it permits advantage to one side of the litigation by adducing ex-parte evidence and bringing on record the documents that ejectment petitioner was required to produce at the time of filing of ejectment petition. It is settled principle of law that when any statute provides a procedure for doing a thing in particular manner, the same should be followed and those particular manners are to be observed.