MARIAM BIBI & ORS. Vs. STATE & ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Letters Patent Appeal is directed against the judgement and order dated 24th May, 2012 passed by the writ Court in OWP No. 232/2004, on the grounds taken in the memo of appeal (hereinafter referred as impugned judgement), whereby writ petition came to be dismissed with liberty to the appellants to work out their remedy, otherwise available under law.

(2.) The facts of the case are that the appellants-writ petitioners questioned the order dated 12.03.2003 of Jammu & Kashmir Special Tribunal, Jammu, in a revision petition titled Salam Khan and others v. Mst. Mariam Bibi read with order dated 22.04.2003, whereby the appellants' application for setting aside the order afore mentioned had been dismissed.

(3.) It appears from perusal of the record that an application was filed by the writ petitioner, Mariam Bibi, before the Custodian Evacuees Property, Jammu, which came to be accepted vide order dated 19.04.1986 under Section 8 of the Evacuees (Administration of Property) Act, Svt. 2006, for de-notification of land in question. Feeling aggrieved, the private respondents questioned the same in a revision before the J&K Special Tribunal. The Tribunal set aside the order of the Custodian Evacuees Property and remanded the matter to the Custodian Evacuee Property for holding fresh enquiry and passing appropriate orders as warranted under Rules. What reveals further is that the petitioner-Mariam Bibi, was not present before the Tribunal on the date when the revision petition was decided and the decision so made was passed in ex parte. The writ petitioner approached the Tribunal with an application for setting aside the ex parte order, which was dismissed with the observation that the Tribunal does not have any authority to review its own order and no such power was available under the J&K Evacuees (Administration of Property) Act, 2006. It further appears from the record that during the pendency of the writ petition, the Custodian Evacuees Property, Jammu, in compliance of the order passed by the tribunal in the revision petition, has conducted a fresh enquiry and made a final order in terms of order dated 31.05.2004. Feeling aggrieved, the writ petitioners-appellants questioned the said order before the Custodian General, Jammu & Kashmir, in a revision petition, which was allowed and the order dated 31.05.2004 was set aside and the matter was remanded back to the Custodian Evacuees Property, Jammu, to implement the order of the Jammu & Kashmir Special Tribunal dated 12.03.2003 in letter and spirit.