KABOOLCHAND Vs. DEPUTY CUSTODIAN ALWAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by Shri Kabool Chand under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for a writ, direction or order to the Deputy Custodian, Alwar District, and the Superintendent of Police, Alwar, directing them not to evict the applicant from a certain house in the city of Alwar. The case put forward by the applicant in his petition was briefly this. The petitioner had been occupying house No. 10 in Ward No. 2, Mohalla Shikari Para Alwar. This was evacuee property and the applicant was the lessee of the Custodian of Evacuee Property. The applicant had been paying the rent of the house re-gularly and had paid up to January 1951 and had also deposited one month's rent in advance when the house was first given to him. The lease in question had not been determined by the Deputy Custodian and the petitioner had not received any notice to that effect. The Deputy Custodian, however, passed a warrant of ejectment and sent it to the Superintendent of Police for compliance and that officer was taking steps to turn the family of the applicant out of the house. The applicant had not been provided with any alternative accommodation. He had also not been allotted a house in Jaipur, where he had been transferred in connection with his service. The petitioner personally requested the Deputy Custodian to cancel his orders but he was bent upon enforcing his orders. It was with great difficulty that the petitioner had obtained a copy of the order. The date of the order was the 17th of January 1951 and the petitioner was being ejected from the house and this was an encroachment of the applicant's legal and fundamental rights.

(2.) An application was also made praying for an interim order on the ground that the applicant was in imminent danger of being evicted from the house without any authority of law. Thereupon, this Court passed an interim order by which the Deputy Custodian was ordered not to enforce the order regarding the ejectment of the house in question till the disposal of the application. That interim order continues up to today.

(3.) The application has been opposed on behalf of the Deputy Custodian and the reply of the Deputy Custodian reveals the true facts which are these. The applicant was allotted this house which was evacuee property. He was served with a notice in March 1950 that as the house was required for the rehabilitation of a displaced person he should vacate the house by the 15th of April 1950. This notice was served on him through the Accountant General, Jaipur, under whom he was serving. Thereafter he made an application on the 18th of April in which he said that he was on sick leave and was unable to vacate the house. He also said that he had been transferred to Jaipur and had not been able to get a house there. He further said that one Jhumman who was in need of the house in Alwar had already got a house and therefore he might be given some time so that he might get another house before he vacated this house. He was then allowed time to vacate the house. When this time expired he was again given notice under Section 9 of the Administration of Evacuee Property Ordinance to vacate the house by a date in August 1950. Then on the 2nd of September 1950 the applicant made an application to the Accountant Gene- ral, Rajasthan in which he said that he had no objection to vacate the house but that it would be very difficult to do so during the rainy season. He also said that it was not the custom among the Hindus to shift from one house to another during those days and requested that the Deputy Custodian might be moved not to eject the members of his family from the house. This request was forwarded to the Deputy Custodian who was however unable to do anything for the applicant. Eventually, on the intervention of the Government of Bajasthan the applicant was allowed to keep possession of the house up to the end of November 1950. It seems that when the applicant did not give up possession of the house even after November 1950 proceedings were taken to have the house vacated in January 1951 and it was thereafter that the present application was made.