MAKHAN SINGH Vs. CUSTODIAN GENERAL, EVACUEE PROPERTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition for a writ of certiorari. Certain land was allotted to respondents 2 & 3 who are refugees from Pakistan. The date of this allotment is not stated in the petition, but it appears from the affidavit filed by the second respondent before the Custodian General that the allotment was some time in the year 1947. The exact date of the allotment is. however, not very material to the present proceeding. On 16 -4 -56, the Provincial Rehabilitation Officer cancelled the allotment in favour of respondents 2 and 3 and made, a fresh allotment of the same land in favour of the petitioners. Respondents 2 and 3 moved the Dy. Custodian General, Evacuee Property for cancellation, of the order. They, however, did not succeed. Thereupon they moved the Custodian General who. by his order dated 24 -5 -1958 set aside the order, of the Dy. Custodian General and thereby restored the original allotment in favour of respondents 2 and 3. The petitioners who are aggrieved by the Custodian Generals order have moved this Court -to quash the order by certiorari.

(2.) THE main grounds on which the petitioners have relied are : 1 that the order of the Custodian1 General dated 24 -5 -1958 is without jurisdiction inasmuch as no land within the State could be allotted to respondents 2 and 3 "who are not displaced persons from the Pakistan -held territory of the State and who did not hold land there." and 2 that respondents 2 and 3 as refugees from Pakistan have been allotted land in the East Punjab State in lieu of their claim for land in Pakistan and. that they are not therefore entitled to allotment of land in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The respondents have challenged the validity of both these grounds.

(3.) THE petitioners learned counsel placed considerable reliance on para 1 of the Allotment Rules made in Cabinet Order No : 578 -C of 1954 dated 7 -5 -1954. It reads: