BASANT RAM JAITLY Vs. CHIEF SETTLEMENT COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Basant Ram Jaitly, petitioner No. 1, is the son of Balmokand, Late Smt. Bagh Sudhi original petitioner No. 2 was his mother. Ralla Ram who was the brother of Smt. Bagh Sudhi petitioner admittedly owned agricultural land in several villages in what is now known as West Pakistan including village Gaga, Tehsil Shahpur, District Sargodha. After partition of the country Ralla Ram was allotted land in East Punjab in lieu of that left by him in West Punjab except for the land left in village Gaga. After the partition of the country Ralla Ram who was a displaced person died and his sister and her son the petitioners in this case succeeded him in respect of the land allotted to him in village Lakhowal Kalan Tehsil Samrala, village Shahbajpur, Tehsil and District Ludhiana and in village Pallanpur, Tehsil Kharar District Ambala.

(2.) In 1958 the question of allotment of land finally to the estate of Ralla Ram deceased was taken up by the Rehabilitation authorities. By his order January 29, 1959 the Managing Officer, Jullundur, cancelled an area of 6-5 1-1/2 standard acres out of the land originally allotted in the name of Ralla Ram in village Shabazpur, Tehsil Samrala, on the ground that according to the entries in the copy of the Jamabandi prepared for the year 1946-47 received from Pakistan the area in question abandoned by Ralla Ram in village Gaga was mostly Ghair mumkin and that Ralla Ram was not entitled to any allotment against that area as the value of ghair mumkin land was to be treated as zero. An appeal and a further revision filed against the above order of the Managing Officer dated 29th January, 1959 were rejected by the Assistant Settlement Commissioner and the Chief Settlement Commissioner by their respective orders dated 11th November, 1959 and 23rd May, 1960.

(3.) Thereupon Basant Ram Jaitly as an heir of Ralla Ram filed Civil Writ No. 1524 of 1960 in this Court impugning the order of the Managing Officer cancelling the above said area of land as well as the subsequent orders of the higher authorities of the Rehabilitation Department upholding that order. When the writ petition came up for notice hearing before Dua, J. on 25th August, 1961, it was noticed that a further affidavit had been sworn by the Chief Settlement Commissioner on 17th August, 1961, to the effect that the land had been cancelled according to the jamabandi for the year 1946-47. Shri Roop Chand the learned counsel who was appearing for Basant Ram Jaitly in that case contended that there was no jamabandi for the year 1946-47 which might have been received from Pakistan and that the latest jamabandi of the village in question before the partition of the countary was for the year 1943-44. When asked by the Court to produce the original alleged jamabandi of the village in question for the year 1946-47, the learned counsel appearing for the State said that he did not have the same in Court and wanted time to product it. On the other hand the learned counsel for the petitioner in that case asked for an opportunity to cross-examine the Chief Settlement Commissioner with respect to the aforesaid affidavit. In the circumstances, Dua J. passed an order in the previous case on 25th August, 1961. The operative part of it reads as follows :-