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Civil Petition for Special Leave to Appeal Nos. 220 and 221 of 1980, decided on 20th December, 1980.

(On appeal from the order of Lahore High Court dated 4-2-1979 in R. S. As. Nos. 624 of 1979/C. M. No. 4122 of 1979).

-- Point not raised by petitioner in' support of appeal before High Court-Held, cannot be allowed to be raised in support of petition for special leave to appeal.

Ss. 19 & 20-Suit for pre-emption-Waiver-Plea-of-High Court after examining record of evidence, finding that no cogent evidence had been produced by vendor to establish plea of waiver-Held, no exception can be taken to views of High Court.

Ghulam Muhammad Chahal. Advocate instructed by Mahmood A. Qureshi, Advocate-on-Record for Petitioners (in both Petitions).

Nemo for Respondent. .

Date of hearing : 20th December, 1980.

.-Ghulam Rasool, respondent herein, filed a pre-emption suit against the petitioners which was resisted inter alia on the plea that the plaintiff had waived his right of pre-emption. The trial Judge accepted the plea of waiver and dismissed the suit but on appeal that Additional District Judge, Shaikhupura reversed this finding and decreed the suit in plaintiff's favour. Petitioner's Second Appeal in the Lahore High Court failed, and they now seek special leave to appeal.

Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Chahal, learned counsel for the petitioners raised a totally new plea before us that the suit was time-barred for the reason that on the day the plaint was filed it was not property stamped. Since this point was not urged by the petitioners in support of their appeal in the High Court, they cannot be allowed to raise it in support of this petition. for special leave to appeal from the judgment of the High Court.

Learned counsel then submitted that the learned Additional District Judge has erred in reversing the finding of the trial Judge. This point has already been examined by the learned Single Judge in the High Court and he rightly rejected it for the following reasons.

"I have myself examined the record of statement of three witnesses produced by the appellant. D. W. 1 Muhammad Iqbal is a Lambar dar but he stated that he had only heard that the respondents had refused to purchase the land from the vendor. D. W. 2 Sardar Muhammad had admitted in cross-examination that be was not present at the time of bargain struck between the parties in respect of the suit land. D: W. 1 Abdul Hamid is the defendant himself. His statement cannot be taken as granted. Waiver requires strong evidence in a suit for pre-emption and one instance is provided by sections 19 and 20 of the Pre-emption Act. Thus, no cogent evidence has been produced by the appellant to establish the plea of waiver."

No exception can be taken with these views, and we, therefore, find no merit in the point raised by the learned counsel.

Learned counsel stated that the facts and the pleas in support of bot', these petitions are identical. We, therefore, dismiss both these petition in lirnine.

Petitions dismissed.

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