SHAKAL ABDUL GAFFOR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Article 226 of the constitution takes exception to documents marked Exs. R and S and the alleged deprivation of petitioner from a right to occupy flat No. G, third floor of what was formerly known as Fazalbhoy House and is now known as Kakad House.

(2.) THE building afore-mentioned consisting of five floors formerly belonged to the Trust Settlement of Bai Sherbanoo wife of Mr. Abdulla Fazalbhoy. That Trust is presently represented by respondents 4 to 6. The Trust owned the building till the year 1981 when the said building was conveyed to respondent No. 7.

(3.) AFTER outbreak of the second world war the then Government enacted for amongst other things the better and more efficient prosecution of the war legislation in the shape of the Defence of India Act, 1939. Rules were framed (under this Act to enable requisitioning of property) and one such rule was that bearing 75-A. The said Rule reads as under:- (1) If in the opinion of the Central government or the Provincial Government it is necessary or expedient so to do for securing the defence of British India, Public safety, the maintenance of public order or the efficient prosecution of the war, of for maintaining supplies and services essentials to the life of the community, that Government may by order in writing requisition any property, moveable or immoveable, and may make such further orders as appear to that Government to be necessary or expedient in connection with the requisitioning. . . (5) The Central Government or the Provincial Government may, with a view to requisition any property under sub-rule (1) or determining the compensation payable under sub-rule (4) by order. (a ). . . . . (b) direct that the owner occupier or person in possession of the property shall not without the permission of Government dispose of it. . . till the expiry of such period as may be specified, it the order. " acting on the basis of the power conferred by the above rule, the Commissioner of Police, Bombay issued an order on 25th of June, 1942. The said order is at Ex. A and the relevant portion therefrom reads as follows: