Law:

Section:

This is a defendant's second appeal under section 100 of the C.P.C. against the judgment and decree of the Addl. District Judge Sialkot dated 16-1-1989 dismissing the appeal of the appellants against the judgment and decree of the trial Court dated 26-1-1988.

 2. The dispute arises out of a suit for specific performance of an agreement to sell filed by the respondent against the appellants who are five in number. This suit was decreed by the Civil Judge Sialkot on 26-1-1988. Aggrieved the appellants filed an appeal which was, however, dismissed by the Additional District Judge, Sialkot on 16-1-1989 without examining the merits of the claims of the parties on the solitary ground that the appeal had not been filed or presented by a duly authorised person.

 3. Mr. Iftikhar Hussain, Assistant Advocate-General who has appeared on behalf of the appellants has raised two-fold contentions. Firstly, that the counsel who had signed the memorandum of appeal and presented it before the lower appellate Court namely Mr. Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi Advocate was the game who had represented the appellants before the trial Court in the suit filed by the respondent and as such the learned counsel had the authority to file an appeal on behalf of the appellants; secondly, that the defect in presentation of the appeal was a matter of procedure and at the most amounted to an irregularity not affecting the merits of the case and was curable by having signatures of an authorised person affixed on the appeal.