The facts are that the land in dispute was allotted to the petitioners as J & K refugees for the purposes of their maintenance by the Deputy Settlement Commissioner (Land) on 10-9-1966.
Subsequently proprietary rights were also conferred on them. However, without cancelling their allotment, the land was allotted to one Zaheer Khan on the petitioners move it was restored to them by the Assistant Commissioner under his order dated 11-7-1979. Zaheer Khan challenged this order in Writ Petition No.927-R/1979 which was accepted on 25-11-1984, the operative part of this order is reproduced below:-- "...For the foregoing reasons this writ petition is accepted, the impugned order declared to have been passed without any lawful authority. Since there is an allegation of fraud the case is remanded to the learned Member Board of Revenue (Revenue) who shall assign it to some officer notified under section 2 of Act XIV of 1975, for decision of the matter afresh. It shall be open to the parties to raise their respective contentions before the notified officer. In case it is found that the land was not available for allotment or that a fraud has been committed, the conferment of proprietary rights on the respondents, shall, hold the field."
2.In pursuance of the order aforesaid the Additional Deputy Commissioner held an inquiry and by his order dated 22-9-1986 upheld the order of 11-7-1979 passed in favour of the petitioners. Zaheer Khan again invoked the writ jurisdiction of the High Court but his Writ Petition No.356/1986 was dismissed by me on 3-11-1986. Thereafter he filed an application against the petitioners under section 12(2) C.P.C. Before Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) with powers of notified officer under section 2(2) of the Evacuee Property & Displaced Persons Laws (Repeal) Act, 1975 but it was turned down by him. His order in this behalf is dated 27-9-1987. The matter does not end here as he then instituted a civil suit which he later on withdraw and consequently it stood dismissed under the civil Court's order dated 2-2--1987.
3. Despite this back ground of the case Shera respondent No.3 herein applied to the learned Member, Board of Revenue (Reh: & Settlement) Wing for cancellation of the petitioners' allotment on the. Ground that it was procured by them by fraud. The learned Member called for a report from the Assistant Commissioner, Hafizabad. The latter summoned the petitioners, embarked upon an inquiry and passed order dated 10-2-1988 directing maintenance of status quo. The proceedings commenced against them by the Tribunals below are sought to be declared without lawful authority.
4. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and the learned Advocate-General on behalf of the Board of Revenue. There should be no doubt that on the promulgation of Evacuee Property & Displaced Persons Laws (Repeal) Act, 1975 all Evacuee Laws including the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, stood repealed with effect from 1-7-1974 except for the cases which were pending on the said date; such cases and the cases remanded by the High Court and the Supreme Court, after the repeal were to be dealt with by :he officer notified by the Provincial Government under section 2(2) of the Act. It is' no body's case nor it can be claimed, that the proceedings against the petitioners were pending on 1-7-1974. Evidently, after the repeal of the Evacuee Laws no jurisdiction vested in the respondents, to reopen the petitioners' case, summon them and conduct an inquiry into their allotment particularly when the matter had already twice lifted before the High Court, and examined at different levels. It is lamentable that the petitioners who struggled for a period of about 23 years) to protect this allotment had to suffer another round of the litigation. The Assistant Commissioner acted illegally to assume jurisdiction and start proceedings against the petitioners to reopen the case. His action in this behalf is utterly without lawful authority.
5. This writ petition is, therefore, accepted with costs. The impugned orders and the action commenced against the petitioners are declared to be without lawful authority and of no legal consequence.