HABIB vs SARDAR ALI AND Other
This matter concerns a petition for leave to appeal against a High Court judgment that restored an allotment of land previously cancelled by the Deputy Settlement Commissioner. The dispute arose from the allotment of land to the respondent's predecessor, Ali Muhammad, based on his entitlement claim. The petitioner, who had been a party to earlier proceedings, failed to challenge an initial order dated 24-2-1960 which recognized the respondent's preferential right to the land. Years later, the petitioner sought to challenge the allotment by alleging calculation errors regarding the land's classification, leading the Deputy Settlement Commissioner to cancel the respondent's allotment in 1970. The High Court subsequently quashed this cancellation, finding that the original classification was correct and that the petitioner's challenge was procedurally barred. The Supreme Court held that the petitioner, having acquiesced to the 1960 order, could not subsequently challenge the resulting allotment under the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act 1958. Furthermore, the Court affirmed that the cancellation order was untenable as it relied on incorrect information regarding the land's classification.
- Can a party who has acquiesced in an earlier order regarding land allotment subsequently challenge the allotment by laying information under the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act 1958?
- Is an order cancelling a land allotment tenable if it is based on incorrect information regarding the classification of the land?
- Section 10, Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act 1958
- Section 11, Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act 1958
ORDER
M. S. H. QURESHI, J. An area measuring 131 kanals 7 marlas was allotted to Habib petitioner in village Mohib Ali, Tahsil and District Bahawalnagar on 26-1-1959. Umar Din, son of Ali Muhammad, brought an appeal on the ground that the land left behind by Ali Muhammad had been barani first class and that although an area of 24 kanals against 165 P. I. Units had been allotted against the claim of Ali Muhammad, there was balance yet to be satisfied. The petitioner was a party in that appeal but he did not appear. The Additional Rehabilitation Commissioner held that Umar Din had a preferential right to the allotment but as his fard did not show the class of the barani land, he remanded the matter, by order dated 24-2-1960, to the A. R. C. To confirm the land in his favour after getting the class of land verified from the Central Record Office. An area of 26 kanals against 175 P. I. Units and 6 kanals against 42. P. I. Units was confirmed on 23-10-1962 and 26-6-1966 respectively against the claim of Ali Muhammad. The petitioner did not agitate the aforesaid order of the Additional Settlement Commissioner dated 24-2-1960 but instead laid information years later that there had been error in calculating the entitlement of Ali Muhammad inas--much as be was entitled at the rate of 33 P. I. Units and not 84. The Deputy Settlement Commissioner, on the report of the Central Record Office that the barani land had been of the third and not first class, by his order dated 9-10-1970, cancelled the last two allotments of 32 kanals made against the entitlement of Ali Muhammad. Sardar Ali, son of Ali Muhammad, after exhausting his remedy in the department ending in the rejection of his revision petition by the Settlement Commissioner on 30- 6-1973, invoked the constitutional jurisdiction by filing Writ Petition No. 51-R of 1974 (BWP). The learned Single Judge obtained a report and summoned the record from the Central Record Office which, made it clear that the barani land had been of the first class and calculating at the rate of 84 P. I.Units per acre, he found that the entitlement of Ali Muhammad would come to 336 P. I. Units and allowing for 10 % addition, the excess of land obtained against the claim of Ali Muhammad would be only 13 P. I. Units which was negligible and which Sardar Ali was ready to purchase. The learned Judge also repelled the objection that the writ petition suffered from laches. He accordingly by order dated 19-2-1976 quashed the order of the Deputy Settlement Commis-- sioner dated 9-10-1970 and all the subsequent orders and restored the original allotment of Sardar Ali against the entitlement of Ali Muhammad, The Petitioner seeks leave to appeal from this order.
2. The petitioner having acquiesced in the order of the Additional Rehabilitation Commissioner dated 24-2-1960, could not have questioned the allotment made in pursuance of that order by laying information under sections 10 and 11 of the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act (XLVII of 1958). Even otherwise the order made by the Deputy Settlement Commissioner on 9-10-1970 cancelling the land from the name of Sardar Ali was not tenable because it proceeded from a wrong information supplied by the Central Record Office.
3. We, therefore, find no merit in this petition, which we accordingly dismiss and refuse leave to appeal.