KANWAR KAMALJIT SINGH Vs. CUSTODIAN EVACUEE PROPERTIES PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners herein claim to be the owners of land measuring 264 kanals 15 marlas situate in village Bohani, tehsil Phagwara, district Kapurthala. Under the pretext of correcting the revenue entries, the land has been declared as "Evacuee Property". The petitioners complain that they have been divested of their property without any notice from any authority. Having failed to get relief at the hands of the authorities, they have filed the present petition and challenged the orders at Annexures P1, P2 and P4 respectively.

(2.) A few facts which have not been rebutted need to be noticed. It is alleged that prior to 1947 Kanwar Sarbjit Singh was the owner of 264 kanals 15 marlas of agricultural land. It was alleged that this land had been sold by him through his attorney to certain muslims before the partition of the country through 14 registered sale deeds. In 12 cases mutations were entered initially, but were finally rejected on the ground that the vendor had raised certain objections and the vendees were not present. No mutations were entered in respect of the remaining two sale deeds. Consequently, till 1947 the land was recorded in the ownership of Kanwar Sarjit Singh. In fact, according to the averments of the petitioners, it continued to be shown in the name of the father of the petitioner till 1969.

(3.) It is alleged that in the year 1959, the said Sarbjit Singh alienated the property through a gift deed in favour of his attorney Sh. Rajpal Singh. The petitioners filed a civil suit challenging the gift deed. Though their suit was initially dismissed, but their appeal was accepted by the learned Appellate Court. The said Rajpal Singh filed a Regular Second Appeal No. 121 of 1967 in this Court. This appeal was dismissed by the High Court vide its judgment of 24/12/1970. In this appeal it was held that the property was joint Hindu family property and that the gift deed was invalid. The petitioners alleged that when they sought the execution of the decree it came to their notice that the Tehsildar-Sale-cum-Managing Officer, Kapurthala had vide its order dated 15/10/1969 directed the revenue authorities to correct the record of rights by sanctioning the mutations which had been rejected prior to the year 1947. A copy of this order has been placed on the record of the case as Annexure P.1. The petitioners have categorically averred that this order has been passed without any notice to them or to their father. On coming to know of this order, the petitioners filed a petition before the Deputy Secretary (Rehabilitation) cum-Assistant Custodian General exercising the power of Custodian General, Punjab. The petition was rejected with the following observations :-