1. ' HAZIQUL KHAIRI, J.---By this common judgment we will dispose of C.P. No,D-2131 of 1992 filed by Nayyar Mumtaz, C.P. No,D-2062 of 1992 filed by Azhar Bashir,- C.P. No,D-2095 of 1992 filed by Mustafizur Rehman, C.P. No, D-2159 of 1992 filed by Ahmed Bilal Sherwani and C.P. No,D-2132 of 1992 filed by Shahzad Mumtaz, among others against the District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner, Karachi (East) who cancelled Permanent Residence Certificates to them whereby they were deprived of admission in N.E.D. University, Karachi.
2. ' The case of the petitioners is that they had passed their Higher Secondary (Pre-Engineering)
3. Examination from the Board of Intermediate Education and were qualified for admission on merit in First Year Engineering classes of the current year for courses of Bachelor of Engineering offered by N.E.D. University under category of 10-2-10 as they were and are permanent residents of rural area of Karachi. All of them are residing with their fathers in Steel Town who are in service of Pakistan Steel Mill which is a semi-Government organisation controlled by Ministry of Production, Government of Pakistan. As such, the petitioners were issued Permanent Residence Certificate (hereinafter called P.R.C.) under Rule 5(1)(a) under the Sindh Permanent Certificate Rules, 1971 in form 'C' for the purpose of admission.
4. ' Petitioners besides their P.R.Cs. have filed in support of their case, certificates of domicile, service certificates, school/college certificates from schools/colleges of the area, allotment letters from Pakistan Steel Mill Corporation and/or Port Qasim Authority etc. issued to their fathers etc., certified entry from electoral roll (in case of Ahmed Bilal Sherwani).
5. ' Now, while the applications for admission of the petitioners in the said category were pending before the N.E.D. University, one Muhammad Naeem Memon made an application for cancellation of their P.R.Cs. on the allegations that the same were issued by unfair means and nepotism and that they were not residents of the said rural area.
6. ' Here it would be useful to refer to the situations when a P.R.C. can be cancelled. A District Magistrate may under rule 4 of the Sindh Permanent Residence Certificate Rules, 1971 issue a P.R.C. for the purpose of admission to an eductonal institution or recruitment to the Public Service which in case of the former has to be in form "C" by virtue of Rule 5 thereof. Any person aggrieved by the grant or the refusal of P.R.C. may prefer an appeal under rule 8(1) to a committee to be set up by Government for the purpose. This committee may confirm, modify or set aside the orders by the District Magistrate which evidently includes power to cancel a P.R.C.
7. ' In a judgment reported recently in Mrs. Faryal Wali and others v. District Magistrate and others 1993 CLC 61) a Division Bench of the High court of Sindh had held that although technically the District Magistrate has no I power to review his order granting P.R.C. under the Sindh Permanent Residence Certificates Rules, 1971, he had ample jurisdiction to cancel P.R.C. I on the basis of fraud and misrepresentation. Similar view was taken in another recently considered judgment of another Division Bench of this Court in Abdul Sattar Siddiqi and another v. District Magistrate, Badin and 3 others reported in 1993 CLC 9. We also endorse this view.
8. The admitted legal position thus is that a District Magistrate cannot review his order except in case of fraud or misrepresentation and where there C is also an error on the face of order itself.
9. Learned counsel for the petitioners have brought to our notice the impugned order which itself confirms the position that the petitioners and their fathers are residents of Steel Town or Port Qasim and purports to rebut the allegation of the said complaint that they are not residents of the said rural area. Irrespective of this finding the reasoning which prevailed upon the learned District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner, Karachi East for cancellation of ,P.R.Cs. firstly was that since the petitioners' fathers were staying there for service purpose the petitioners shall have no interest in the area which disentitles them to P.R.Cs. from Karachi rural area. The further reasoning was that the petitioners were not born in the area and nor did they take their primary education nor they were registered voters of the area. The entire reasoning of the learned District Magistrate (Karachi East) for cancellation of P.R.Cs. on the face of the said confirmed position is fallacious and violative of Rule 6 of the Sindh Permanent Residence Certificate Rules, 1971 and if taken to its logical end would perpetuate gross injustice to the children of those in Government Service, Semi-Government or Private Service at an area other than the area in which their native village, town or city is situated. In so far as the allegation that the petitioners had obtained P.R.Cs. by unfair means and nepotism there is not a word about it. However, whether these P.R.Cs. were procured by the petitioners by practising fraud or misrepresentation has remained unanswered by the District Magistrate.
10. ' In view of this position, we allow the petitions with direction to N.E.D. University to give provisional admissions to the petitioners within two weeks hereof. The petitioners may apply for their admission in the meanwhile. We further order that the District Magistrate, Karachi (East) shall pass fresh orders in the light of the observations made by us above within six weeks hereof. It is further ordered that N.E.D. University shall give regular admission to them upon fresh orders by the District Magistrate in their favour provided further they are eligible on merit in the said category. Office is directed to supply copy of this order to the District Magistrate (East) immediately.
11. ' The above are the reasons for our short order dated 18-1-1993.