JUDGMENT

Davis, J C - This is an appeal against the judgment of the Mrst Class Subordinate Judge at Sukkur setting aside the judgment of the Joint Subordinate Judge at Shikarpur who decreed the suit of the minor plaintiff through his next friend for Rs. 457-8-0 due under a lease entered into by the next friend on behalf of the minor. The minor is a Mahomedan and his next friend is his step-brother who has not been appointed or declared a guardian by a competent Court and who is only the de facto guardian of the minor. In the plaint the next friend described himself as also the guardian of the minor but there was nothing in the plaint about the case brought forward in Court that the next friend was a de jure guardian as the appointed executor under the will of the minor's father. The Judge in the lower Appellate Court was right then in rejecting the new status which the trial Judge had accepted and in finding that the next friend was a de facto guardian only. It was argued before us in appeal that even if the next friend was a de facto guardian, he could lawfully enter into a lease on behalf of the minor, for the Privy Council judgment in Imambandi v. Haji Mutsadi A.I.R. (1918) P.C.