Historical school wins landmark judgment

Court orders tenants to vacate Noor Muhammad School

HYDERABAD:

A 19th-century educational institution of Hyderabad seems to be gradually reclaiming its property as over two years after securing a court's verdict for reacquiring possession of its hostel, another court has ordered eviction of tenants from its 21 shops.

The Eighth Additional District and Session Judge Niaz Hussain Soomro on Saturday upheld the March 26 order of a subordinate court for evicting tenants from all the shops of 136-year-old Noor Muhammad High School so that the school can undertake expansion works.

The order has been given in an appeal filed by a tenant, Fareeduddin, against the school. The school, located in the densely populated centre of Hyderabad City adjacent to Liaquat University Hospital, was established by the then British rulers in 1888, named as Hyderabad High School. It has an E-shaped building, possessing unique architecture of the 19th century.

It was later renamed Noor Muhammad High School in the name of Advocate Noor Mohammad Lakhair who acquired it from the British government in 1924. An area of 14,550 square yards of the school's land was entered in the city survey record in the name of Muslim Education Society in the year 1934 after Lakhair donated the schools and all his assets, including his house.

A year earlier on October 30, 1933, Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, revenue and finance member of council of the government of Bombay, laid the foundation stone of the hostel while it was inaugurated by the then Governor Sindh Sir Leslie Wilson.

Lakhair had graduated from Aligarh University. He was inspired by the Anglo-Muhammadan Oriental College established by Sir Syed Ahmad, and dreamed of setting up a similar institution in Hyderabad. To realize his dream he visited all parts of the subcontinent and collected funds from philanthropists.

Eviction order

In March this year a civil judge and judicial magistrate ordered the tenants to vacate the rented premises and to hand over vacant physical possession to the school within 30 days. However, Fariduddin challenged the order in the district and sessions court.

The appellant contended that the rent application has been filed by the headmaster who does not fall in the meaning of the landlord. Jamali is neither the owner nor he is entitled to receive the rent, he added.

He went on to refute the headmaster's stance that construction of more classrooms in the school by vacating the shops has been planned. Fariduddin argued that additional classrooms cannot be constructed unless the provincial government proposed the budget to the Sindh Finance Department but no such documents have been put on record.

He maintained that the tenants have been occupying the premises since 1956 and the shops were constructed 45 years ago. The judge, however, pointed out in the order that Director of School Education Department, Hyderabad, Azizullah Odho had permitted the school's headmaster to appoint a lawyer to file an ejectment application against the tenant shopkeepers in the light of Sindh High Court's order in CP number S-1243/2015.

The judge noted that the official record showed that the shops were required for further expansion of the school. The SHC's order dated December 21, 2021, had directed DC Hyderabad and AC City to help the school authorities with the eviction of tenants. The SHC Karachi on December 10, 2021, had also ordered the Rangers to vacate the school's hostel that it was occupying for decades. The hostel is located around half a kilometre away from the school, adjacent to the LUH's emergency ward.