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Abdul Aziz and others V. Town Municipal Officer Hub through Administrator Civic Centre Hub and others,

CLC 2020 1764 · Balochistan High Court

This case involved a long-running dispute between tenants (shopkeepers) and the Town Municipal Committee, Hub, over rented shops. Earlier, the Balochistan High Court had disposed of an appeal between the parties through a consent order in 2016, which set out three things: the municipal committee would issue allotment letters to the tenants under an existing agreement, the monthly rent would be increased from Rs. 500 to Rs. 2000, and any dispute over previous unpaid rent could be taken to the appropriate court.

The tenants later filed an execution petition asking the Rent Controller to enforce this consent order, particularly the part about issuing allotment letters. The municipal committee objected, and the Rent Controller dismissed the execution petition, reasoning that no landlord-tenant relationship existed when the earlier appeal was filed.

The High Court held that this was wrong. Although the ordinary procedural rules of the Civil Procedure Code do not strictly apply to rent proceedings, the Rent Controller could still use its equitable principles. More importantly, an executing court must act strictly within the terms of the decree it is enforcing, not go beyond it or question its basis. Since the tenants had secured a valid consent decree, the Rent Controller was obliged to enforce it, including resolving the rent arrears issue mentioned in the order, rather than dismissing the execution outright.

The court allowed the appeals and sent the case back to the Rent Controller to decide the execution and objections strictly according to the terms of the original consent order.

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