Mst. NAJMUNNISA vs ADMINISTRATOR, ABANDONED PROPERTIES AND OTHERS
This matter concerns a petition for special leave to appeal against a High Court judgment dismissing a constitutional petition regarding the status of a property declared as abandoned. The core legal question was whether an alleged oral gift of a house, made by a Bengali owner to the petitioner prior to the enactment of the Abandoned Properties (Taking Over and Management) Act, 1975, was genuine and legally effective, despite the absence of mutation in the society's records and the lack of supporting evidence. The Supreme Court held that the Administrator of Abandoned Properties and the High Court correctly concluded the gift was not established. The Court emphasized that the significant delay in seeking mutation, the lack of evidence regarding rent collection, the absence of intimation to the tenant, and the implausibility of the donor transferring substantial property to a cousin while disinheriting her own children rendered the claim meritless. The principle laid down is that in the absence of tangible evidence, factual findings by a competent authority regarding the genuineness of a property transfer will not be disturbed in appellate proceedings.
- Can a property transfer be recognized as valid when there is a significant delay in seeking mutation and no supporting evidence of the transaction?
- Is the factual finding of the Administrator of Abandoned Properties regarding the genuineness of a gift subject to interference if supported by the evidence?
- Does the failure to produce rent receipts or notify tenants of a property transfer undermine the claim of a valid oral gift?
- Section 14, Abandoned Properties (Taking Over and Management) Act, 1975
ORDER
1. ' MUHAMMAD HALEEM, J.-The petitioner seeks special leave to appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Sind dated 12th of July, 1977, by which Constitutional Petition No, D-382 of 1977 was dismissed.
2. ' The facts are that 600 square yards of land bearing plot No, 37-C in Pakistan Defence Service Officers' Co-operative Housing Society Limited was allotted to Wing-Commander Abdul Quddus and a sub-lease was duly executed and registered on 12th of September, 1966. Thereafter, he built a house on it and later, on 26th of November, 1977, gifted it to his wife, Mst. Anwara Begum, a cousin of the petitioner's husband. The transfer of the plot was mutated in her favour by the Society. Mst.
3. Anwara Begum, on 24th of April, 1969, orally gifted the house to the petitioner and on 2nd of August, 1969, executed a declaration to support it ; nonetheless no attempt was made to get the transfer mutated in the Society records until the 18th of October, 1973, by which date the Abandoned Properties (Taking Over and Management) Act, 1975, came into operation and the house was declared as abandoned property as Mst. Anwara Begum was a Bengali. The Society refused to accept the transfer and directed the petitioner to obtain an order from the competent authority under the aforesaid Act. Thereupon, the petitioner filed an application under section 14 of the Act on 28th of May, 1973, before the Administrator, Abandoned Properties, which was dismissed on 20th of January, 1976, on the ground that the deed of declaration was not a genuine document as it was not supported by any tangible evidence. The Administrator further held that the petitioner had suppressed her relationship with Mst. Anwara Begum and, therefore, it was not possible to accept that she would transfer her valuable property for the sake of love and affection. It may here- be recalled that an unsigned letter, addressed to the Commissioner of Income Tax, was put in proof of the alleged gift but the petitioner failed to establish that it was duly received by the addressee.
4. Again, it was urged that the petitioner's husband collected rent from the Singer Industries Limited but no receipt was produced to support it.
5. ' Aggrieved by this order the petitioner challenged its validity in the High Court but failed to establish that the gift was genuine. The High Court accepted the conclusions of the Administrator and rejected the plea of the petitioner.
6. In seeking leave to appeal the same contentions were urged as were raised before the High Court but we do not see any substance in them in the wake of the delay of more than four years to seek mutation ; absence of intimation to the tenant as to the transfer of the house in her favour ; non- production of rent receipts either before the Administrator or the High Court and the absence of any valid reason as to why Mst. Anwara Begum would transfer her substantial property to a cousin and deprive her own children. On this view of the matter, the factual conclusion reached by the Administrator, does not suffer from any impropriety and the High Court was justified in upholding it.
7. Accordingly, there is no merit in this petition which is dismissed.