Law: Guardians and Wards Act, 1890

Section: 25

P L D 1956 Karachi 451           Guardians and Wards Act (1111 of 1890), S. 25-Applica tion for custody of minor-Whether ordinary residence of minor or place of residence of person entitled to his custody determines jurisdiction of Court.   The jurisdiction of the Court in the matter of application under section 25 of the Guardians and Wards Act depends upon the ordinary place of the residence of the minor. This is the ground of jurisdiction ether in an application made under section 10 or section 25 of the Guardians and Wards Act. Residence is a matter of fact and not matter of presump tion, though where fact are ambiguous, presumption may have to be called in, to solve the question of fact.   Where, therefore, a minor is living with both his parents at D. inspite of the fact that his residence had been interrupted for a brief period of four months when he accompanied his mother to K where she had come to pay a visit to her parents, the minor's ordinary place of residence continued to be at D.   Yakshman v. Gangaram A I R 1932 Born. 592 approved.   Annie Besant v. Narayaniah I L R 38 Mad. 807 ref.     JUDGMENT   CONSTANTINE, C. J.-The preliminary question in this matter is whether this Court has jurisdiction.   The necessary underlying facts are as follows. It is common ground that the opponent Ali Muhammad's father, now dead, carried on business and lived in Karachi where Ali Muhammad's two brothers are now living. In 1941, Ali Muhammad married the applicant Saran, whose father lives and carries on business in Karachi, and whose brother is married to Ali Muhammad's sister in Karachi. In 1945, the elder minor was born at Karachi. In 1946, Ali Muhammad went to America with a Sind Government Scholarship, leaving his wife and child in Karachi, chiefly with his parents and sometimes with her parents. On return from America in 1949, Ali Muhammad joined the M. E. S. and was posted to Rawal pindi. Saran, his wife, accompanied him there, and the second child Muhammad Anwar, subject of the interim injunction, was born in 1950. A year later Ali Muhammad, in June 1951, married his second…