AZHAR MUHAMMAD KHAN And Others vs DEPUTY
The petitioners, displaced persons from India, challenged the cancellation of agricultural land allotted to them in Karak tehsil, District Kohat, which had been re-allotted to the respondents. The Settlement Department maintained that the disputed land had been allotted to the respondents since 1963 and remained in their possession, rendering it unavailable for allotment to the petitioners. The petitioners contended that the respondents' allotment exceeded their entitlement. The High Court dismissed the petitioners' challenge, holding that the determination of whether the respondents' allotment exceeded their entitlement involved a question of fact, which could not be adjudicated within writ jurisdiction, particularly as the competent authority had already verified the allotment. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision. The Court affirmed that writ jurisdiction is not the appropriate forum for re-opening disputed questions of fact, especially where the competent authority has scrutinized the record and found no excess entitlement. Consequently, the petition was dismissed, reinforcing the principle that appellate or writ courts should generally refrain from interfering with factual findings established by competent administrative authorities.
- Can questions of fact regarding land allotment entitlement be re-opened in writ jurisdiction?
- Is the High Court empowered to interfere with factual findings made by a competent authority in writ proceedings?
- Does the allotment of land to displaced persons remain valid if the land was previously allotted to others and never cancelled?
ORDER
1. NASIM HASAN SHAH, J.---The petitioners, who are displaced persons from India and had abandoned agricultural property there, were allotted some land in satisfaction of their entitlement certificates in various tehsils Of Kohat district including some land in Karak tehsil in the said District.
2. It appears, however, that the land allotted to them in Karak tehsil was cancelled and allotted to some of the respondents. According to the Settlement Department, the said land already stood allotted to them (since the year 1963) and they were possession thereof ever since; hence the said land was not available for allotment to the petitioners and in so far as the land in dispute already stood allotted to the respondents in satisfaction of their claims and had never been cancelled from them, its allotment to the petitioners was not possible and the same had, therefore, to be cancelled.
3. According to the petitioners, however, the respondents were not entitled to be allotted the said land because this was in excess of their entitlement.
4. The same argument was raised before, the High Court but was not accepted by it on the ground that the question as to whether the respondents had obtained allotments in excess of their entitlement being a question of fact could not be resolved in writ jurisdiction, especially when the competent Authority in District Hazara had scrutinized the record and found that the allotment made to them was not in excess of their entitlement.
5. Khan Imtiaz Muhammad Khan, learned Advocate-on-Record for the petitioners, vehemently contended that this last mentioned finding was quite erroneous and he could demonstrate that the respondents had indeed obtained allotment far in excess of their entitlement. We do not feel inclined to allow this exercise because we agree with the view taken by the High Court that in writ jurisdiction questions of fact should not normally be re-opened and that this is not such a case where an exception should be made to this rule.
6. This petition must, therefore, fail and is dismissed hereby.