This writ petition under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, calls in question the order dated 5-11-1976, passed by Syed Wilayat A.I Bokhari, Claims Commissioner, Lahore Division, Lahore, whereby the amount of Claim Nos.1443 (Lahore) and 356 to 362 (Montgomery), verified at Rs.1,38,121 was reduced to Rs.54,963 in respect of Schedules II and VI.
2. Briefly, the facts of the case are that the claims of the petitioners were originaly verified by the Deputy Claims Commissioner, Sahiwal, on 6-11-1956. On appeal, the Claims Commissioner remanded the case to the Deputy Claims Commissioner vide his Order dated 31-12-1957. On remand, the Deputy Claims Commissioner, Sahiwal, vide order dated 17-12-1958 reverified the claim forms of all the petitioners after recording fresh evidence. The petitioners filed appeal before the Additional Claims Commissioner, who accepted the same by his order dated 12-2-1959. The petitioners were, however, not satisfied with the order of the Additional Claims Commissioner and filed a review on 7-3-1959 with the prayer that the cost of 900 sq. Ft. Superstructure was omitted by oversight while calculating values of unit No.1 and 240 sq. Ft. Area of Unit No.II and its cost should have been allowed. The review petition was accepted by the learned Additional Claims Commissioner vide order dated 7-4-1959. Thereafter, Mst. Mchki alias Hameedan, one of the petitioners, filed revision petition against the order of the Additional Claims Commissioner, Montgomery dated 7-4-1959, which was dismissed in default on 6-3-1961. After that, two persons namely A.M. Nasim and Fazal Elahi made an application to the Director Enforcement of Claims that the petitioners got double verification of their claims, one at Sahiwal and the other at Lahore, upon which the impugned order dated 5-11-1976 was passed by the learned Claims Commissioner.
3. Mr. Oamar-ud-Din Khan, petitioner has contended that after amendment of law by Ordinance NoXIII of 1964, amending Section 7 of the Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act, 1956, the Claims Commissioner had no jurisdiction after 13-3-1965 to interfere with the verified claims.
4. Nobody appears to oppose the petition. The claims of the petitioners were finally verified on 7-4- 1959. For more than seventeen years nobody made any grievance against the petitioners. In any event, there is great force in the submission of the petitioners that after amendment of Section 7 of the Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act, 1956, the Claims Commissioner had no jurisdiction to review or vary the claims finally verified in favour of the petitioner. This view finds support from the judgment of the Supreme Court in Mst. Sadiqa Begum v. Claims Commissioner, Lahore Division, Lahore 1988 SCM R 407.
5. In view of the above, the impugned order dated 5-11-1976 of the learned Claims Commissioner Lahore Division, Lahore, Farid Kot House, Lahore, is declared as without lawful authority and of no legal effect. With these observations, the writ petition is accepted, but as nobody has appeared on behalf of the respondents, no order is made as to costs.
H.B.T./J-45/K Writ accepted