1. ' NASIM HASAN SHAH, J.-- This petition is directed against the judgment of the learned Single Judge of the Lahore High Court, dated 5th February, 1975 passed in Writ Petition No, 559/R of 1969.
2. ' The case has a chequered history and the matter has been considered in more than one round by the Settlement authorities. Herein we are concerned with the situation as it emerges in the final round.
3. The question herein was whether the petitioner was a local and, if so, he could not, therefore, compete with respondent No,1 the other occupant of the house, who was admittedly a non- claimant displaced person.
4. ' The learned Deputy Settlement Commissioner held the petitioner to be a displaced person and in this connection relied upon the circumstance that the petitioner had participated in the elections to the State Council of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir State on behalf of the refugees of Jammu and Kashmir. His name was also shown as a refugee from Jammu and Kashmir in the electoral roll.
5. His status as a refugee was also not controverted in the oral evidence. The above finding was endorsed, on appeal, by the learned Additional Settlement Commissioner. On revision, however, the finding was upset as the learned Settlement Commissioner was of the view that the petitioner hailed from Vitala, which was a part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and his attempt to show himself, in his K.N.C.H. Form, as hailing from Deva Vitala, which formed part of occupied Kashmir was recorded by adding the word "Deva" subsequently before the word "Vitala". The High Court did not interfere with the decision of the learned Settlement Commissioner. Hence this petition for leave.
6. ' Mr. Ehsanul Haque, learned counsel for the petitioner has referred us to page 42 of the Paper Book which is a Notification published in the Gazette (Extraordinary) of the Azad Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, dated 12th December, 1961, wherein the names of the elected members of the Council of the Azad Government of the Jammu and Kashmir have been notified in pursuance of the elections held under the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Presidential Election Act, 1960. Herein, the petitioner is shown as elected from the Constituency "Refugees from Jammu Province". The word "refugee" has been defined in Act XIII of 1960 (copy whereof has been reproduced in the Paper Book) as any "subject of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, who left or was forced to leave the India occupied part of Jammu and Kashmir State between the years 1947 and 1960 due to the war of Liberation and took refugee in Pakistan". Taking into consideration the Notification and the above definition of the word "refugee" as defined in Act XIII of 1960 no doubt is left that the petitioner was residing in a part of Jammu and Kashmir State which was later occupied by India.
7. ' We feel that this aspect of the case has not been given sufficient consideration by the learned Settlement Commissioner, while upsetting the orders of the Deputy Settlement Commissioner and the Additional Settlement Commissioner and, therefore, the case requires further consideration.
8. ' Leave to appeal is granted.
9. ' Security in the sum of Rs, 2,500.
10. ' Appeal to be made ready on the present record with liberty to the parties to add further documents, if considered necessary.
11. ' Interim order, dated 27th May, 1975 maintaining the possession of the petitioner to continue meanwhile.