WARIAMA Vs. RAM SARAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondents filed a suit against the appellants for possession of .12 kanals 1 marla of agricultural land described in the plaint and situated in village Chakwal, district Hoshiarpur, on the averment that they were displaced persons from West Pakistan and had been allotted this land in lieu of the land left in Pakistan and of which proprietary rights were conferred on them, and that the appellants had encroached upon it and taken possession thereof. The appellants pleaded in defence that they were occupancy tenants on the land under Muslim landlords who migrated to Pakistan and they became proprietors of the land under the provisions of the Punjab Occupancy Tenants (Vesting of Proprietary Rights) Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). On the pleadings of the parties, the following issues were framed by the learned trial Court :-

(2.) The land in suit was in possession of one Nathu as an occupancy tenant under Muslim landlords. On October 15, 1937, Nathu gifted his occupancy rights in favour of the appellants. On August 25, 1942, the Muslim landlords filed a suit under Section 60 of the Punjab Tenancy Act for the ejectment of the appellants on the ground that Nathu had transferred his occupancy rights in favour of the donees and, therefore, they were liable to ejectment. That suit was dismissed by the Assistant Collector, Hoshiarpur, on July 31, 1944. A copy of that order is Exhibit P. 5. An appeal was preferred to the Collector, Hoshiarpur, who rejected the same. A revision was filed before the Commissioner, Jullundur Division, who forwarded the case to the Financial Commissioner for orders. The learned Financial Commissioner accepted the revision and passed a decree in favour of the landlords cancelling the gift of occupancy rights and ordered dispossession of the appellants. It was, however, held by the learned Financial Commissioner that "the rights will revert to the successors-in-interest of occupancy rights of Nathu". This order was passed on June 22, 1949. Nathu died and the appellants succeeded to him as heirs in whom the occupancy rights vested. Due to the partition of the country, the Muslim landlords migrated to Pakistan and thus became evacuees. Their properties left in India became evacuee properties and vested in the Custodian of Evacuee Property. "Evacuee property" is defined in Section (2)(f) of the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950, as under :-

(3.) Originally, when the Act was enacted, Section 9 provided -