SOHAN LAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondent Jagan Nath filed a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution in the Punjab High Court which was allowed. The High Court ordered the respondent The Union of India and the appellant Sohan Lal to forthwith restore possession of house No. 35 situated in West Patel Nagar, Delhi to Jagan Nath. Against this order of the High Court the appellant applied for and obtained special leave to appeal to this Court.

(2.) Jagan Nath is a displaced person and a refugee from Pakistan. The Government of India had devised various schemes for the rehabilitation of refugees. One of these was a scheme for sale of certain houses constructed by the Government of India for refugees in West Patel Nagar. It was not intended under the scheme to entertain applications from displaced persons who had already been allotted agricultural land in East Punjab. A limited number of houses known as "box-type tenements" were constructed. According to the procedure prescribed in order to give effect to the scheme, only those displaced persons, who were registered before the 15th of August, 1948, and were gainfully employed, were eligible for allotment of a house. A displaced person wishing to apply for allotment of a house was required to submit an application in the prescribed form offering to purchase a house in West Patel Nagar. If the applicant was prima facie eligible, he could be instructed to deposit the sale price of the house in the treasury, his eligibility to be verified later on. Permission to deposit the sale price did not mean that his eligibility had been accepted. After payment of the sale price the applicant could be required to produce proof of his eligibility. A list would be prepared of all the applicants who had deposited the sale price and whose eligibility had been verified. If the number of the applicants was in excess of the available number of houses, those whose treasury challans bore a later date would be excluded and their money refunded. The applicants whose names were included in the final list would be required to pay the ground rent by a specified date. A particular house would be allotted to an applicant by drawing lots. Jagan Nath had got himself registered as a refugee on December 31, 1947. He had made his application in the prescribed form. He had deposited the sum of Rs. 5,600 as the sale price after his prima facie eligibility had been accepted. He had also deposited the ground rent for the plot on which the house had been built, having been informed previously that it had been decided to allot him a two-roomed enclosed verandah "box-type" house in West Patal Nagar. He was informed that the allotment of a particular house would be decided by drawing lots at site on February 15, 1952, at 3 p.m. As the result of the drawing of lots, house No. 35, the property in dispute in this appeal, fell to his lot. According to Jagan Nath, on May 10, 1952, the Accommodation Officer in his absence removed the members of his family along with his entire belongings to the house in dispute in a truck and he and his family thus entered into possession of the house in dispute. Jagan Nath, however, was evicted from the house in dispute on September 27, 1952, by virtue of a warrant of eviction dated September 11, 1952, purporting to have been issued under S. 25 of Ordinance III of 1952. After his eviction, possession of the house in dispute was given to the appellant on October 3, 1952. The appellant, who is also a displaced person, had applied on February 27, 1952, for allotment of a house in West Patel Nagar. He had made the deposit of Rs. 5,600 as sale price and had apparently complied with all the necessary conditions for allotment of a house to him and the house in dispute was allotted to him on July 31, 1952. The appellant has been in possession of the disputed house since October 3, 1952.

(3.) The appellant's main contention has been that, having regard to the circumstances of the case, the High Court erred in making the order it did which presumably purported to be in the nature of a writ of mandamus. There was, a serious dispute on questions of fact between the parties and also whether Jagan Nath, had acquired in law any title to the property in dispute. Proceedings by way of a writ were not appropriate in a case where the decision of the Court would amount to a decree declaring Jagan Nath's title and ordering restoration of possession. The proper remedy open to Jagan Nath was to get his title declared in the ordinary way in a Civil Court. The alternative remedy of obtaining relief by a writ of mandamus or an order in the nature of mandamus could only be had if the facts were not in dispute and Jagan Nath's title to the property in dispute was clear. It was further contended on behalf of the appellant that a writ of mandamus or an order in the nature of mandamus could not be made against the appellant, a private individual. He had come into lawful possession and there was no evidence of collusion between him and the Union of India and there was no finding by the High Court that the appellant had acted in collusion with the Union of India as a result of which Jagan Nath was dispossessed of the property in dispute and the same was allotted to him.