MAJOR GOPAL SINGH Vs. CUSTODIAN EVACUEE PROPERTY PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants who are admittedly displaced persons from West Pakistan were granted quasi-permanent allotment of 24 standard acres and 15 3/4 units in the village of Rajkot in Ludhiana District in 1949. Their father Sardar Nand Singh who was found entitled to quasi-permanent allotment of 40 standard acres and 5 1/4 units of land was given quasi-permanent allotment in another village named Humbran in the same district. The two villages are, however, 25 miles or so distant from each other. Nand Singh, therefore, made an application for consolidation of his lands with those of the appellants in the village Raikot. During the pendency of this application he died and after his death, the application was continued by the appellants. This application was rejected by the Assistant Custodian on July 23, 1951, on the ground that no land was available in the village Raikot. A revision petition preferred by the appellants against the order of the Assistant Custodian was dismissed by the Additional Custodian on August 20, 1952. On October 7, 1952, the appellants preferred a revision application before the Custodian General.

(2.) During the pendency of the revision application the Additional Custodian for the State of Punjab cancelled the allotment of fourteen quasi-permanent allottees of the village Karodian in the same district on the ground that those persons were entitled to allotment of suburban land and had been wrongly fitted in the village Karodian. Acting suo motu the Additional Custodian made an order on October 3 1, 1952, cancelling the order of allotment of land in the village Raikot made in favour of the appellants in the year 1949 and instead allotted to them land in Karodian in substiution of the lands at Raikot and of the lands allotted to their father. The land allotted was out of the land released upon the cancellation of allotment of lands in favour of the aforementioned 14 allottees. These fourteen allottees preferred an application for review of the order cancelling their allotment on the ground that this cancellation was a result of misapprehension of the actual facts and that they were not entitled to allotment of suburban lands at all. The appellants also preferred an application for review of the order cancelling their quasi-permanent allotment in the village Raikot.

(3.) The Additional Custodian for the State of Punjab recommended to the Custodian General the restoration of the land to the 14 allottees which had been taken away from them by reason of cancellation of the allotment in their favour by the order dated October 31, 1952. The Additional Custodian admitted that these persons were not entitled to allotment of suburban land and that consequently their allotment had been wrongly made but referred the matter back to the Additional Custodian for decision. The application made by the appellants was kept pending till the decision of the application of the 14 allottees of Karodian. The Additional Custodian, however, dismissed the application on the ground that R. 14(6) of the Evacuee Property Rules which came into force on July 22, 1952, stood in the way of cancellation of the allotment in favour of the appellant.