SAMPURAN SINGH Vs. COMPETENT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution for a writ of certiorari quashing the order of the competent officer, Patiala dated 20 -12 -1952 and a writ of prohibition restraining the Custodian Muslim Evacuee Property, Pepsu from taking possession of 3 bighas and 15 biswas of agricultural land (Khasra No. 73) in village Suhron of the Rajpura Tehsil.

(2.) THE land in question belonged to one Karam Bux evacuee and had been held in usufructuary mortgage by the petitioners for a period of over 20 years. The Competent Officer respondent 1 acting under Cl. (2) of S. 9 of the Evacuee Interest (Separation) Act, 1951 (Act 64 of 1951) (hereinafter called the Act) has held the mortgage to have extinguished and respondent 2 (Custodian, Muslim Evacuee Property) to be entitled to the immediate possession of the land without paying anything to the mortgagees.

(3.) AS the preamble would show the Act was brought on the statute book for it was deemed expedient by the Parliament to make special provisions for the separation of the interests of evacuees from those of other persons in property in which such other persons were also interested and for matters connected therewith. The object of the Act apparently, therefore, was not only the separation of the interests of the evacuees from those of the non -evacuees but also to deal with other matters that were closely connected with the separation of those interests.