' By this common order, we intend to dispose of the above petitions, which have been filed against the judgment dated 17-4-1998 passed in Writ Petition No,1006/1996 filed by one Rauf A. Ghauri in which the petitioner sought direction against the Cholistan Development Authority to remove the encroachments from the suit land. The above writ petition was contested by a number of occupants of the suit land. However, the same was allowed by holding as under:- "We have already held that the Cholistan Development Authority is autonomous body. It is neither subject to administrative control of Board of Revenue nor it is an attached Department of Planning & Development Department; that the orders passed by the Managing Director, Authority are not subject to any incident of appeal, revision or review of the Board of Revenue. For this reason we accept this petition (W.P. 2342/96) and declare the impugned order of the Member (Colonies)
Board of Revenue dated 19-8-1993 as illegal and without any lawful authority. The aforesaid order is accordingly set aside.
' As regards CM.77/96, it caters for a different situation. We, therefore, direct the office to enlist it for hearing on 22-6-1998 before any available Bench.
' Before parting with this judgment, we note our immense appreciation of industry, labour with which the learned counsel for the parties have argued the case on number of occasions. At this juncture, we appreciate laudable contribution of M/s. Muhammad Jaffar Hashmi, Masood Ashraf Shaikh, Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and so many other Advocates who contributed in the debate with high sense of integrity and loyalty to profession. There shall be no order as to costs.
' We further direct that the Deputy Registrar (Judi.) of the Lahore High Court, Bahawalpur Bench, Bahawalpur, shall immediately send a copy of this judgment to the Managing Director, Cholistan Development Authority, Bahawalpur/Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, Lahore. The Chief Secretary shall put this judgment before the Cabinet of Punjab Province so that the Provincial Government may take necessary legislative and consequential remedial measures commensurate with this judgment to make the Authority an effective instrumentality of the Provincial Government. If any delay is caused in this matter, we regret to say that this vast tract of area will become a paradise for encroachers."
' The petitioners, who are occupants of certain portions of the suit land have filed the present petitions for leave to appeal. Notices were issued to the respondents and the learned Advocate- General, Punjab.
2. The brief facts leading to the filing of the above petitions are that the erstwhile Bahawalpur State issued Notification No,66/LD dated 4-11-1950 whereby Shah Muzara Scheme was floated for alloting the land for agricultural purpose. The above scheme was adopted by the Board of Revenue, West Pakistan through a notification dated 12-10-1966 in which at Serial No,10, the following entry appeared:-- "10. Abadkari conditions (Barani lands in the Cholistan area)
Bahawalpur State Government Notification No,66/LD, dated the 4-11-1950."
3. After that it seems that various other schemes were also framed for the allotment of the suit land, which have been referred to in para 33 of the impugned judgment. It seems that there was lot of encroachment made by unauthorised persons on the suit land and there were also a number of bogus sales involving the suit land.
' In the above background the above writ petition was filed. The High Court has recorded the following findings:-- "Guided by the above principles and in the light of our conclusions noted above, we accordingly accept this Constitutional petition with grant of following reliefs:-- ' Firstly; Declaration is granted to the effect that Cholistan Development Authority constituted under subsection (2) of section 4 of Act XIV of 1976, is independent autonomous and a body corporate; it is neither subject to administrative control of Board of Revenue nor is an attached Department of Planning and Development Department/Government of Punjab. It is an apex Authority and is invested with necessary powers to further objects of the Act XIV of 1976; that the orders passed by the Managing Director of Cholistan Development Authority are not subject to incident of appeal, review or revision under the relevant provisions of Punjab Land Revenue Act (XVII of 1967). The Government, however, will be well within its right to make such rules/providing for such remedies; Secondly; Shahi Muzara Scheme issued by the former Government of Bahawalpur is in violent defiance of section 29 of the Contract Act; it is uncertain and cannot be made certain. So all the allotments made under the said scheme are declared to have been made without lawful authority and hence of no lawful consequence; ' Thirdly; neither the Federal Government nor any other Authority except the Provincial Government is competent to give any direction to this Authority for allotment of land to any person or any class of persons which such entity may like to be accommodated in Cholistan; ' Fourthly; we note with regret that the Authority has failed to frame statement or statements of conditions on which it wants to grant land to tenants; that it had failed to carry out functions assigned to it by sections 15 & 16 of the Act XIV of 1976. We accordingly direct the Authority to frame statement/statements of conditions on which it wants to grant land to indigenous people of Cholistan known as Cholistan and thereafter to landless tenants of Bahawalpur Division. The Authority, while doing so shall obtain approval of the Provincial Government. We have further found that this area. Had a great potential in growth of livestock. Statedly these are about 15 lacs animals in it without the infrastructure of supply of drinking water to them. We, therefore, direct the Authority to examine this potential of this area and issue necessary legal infrastructure, reserve land as Charagah for livestock and convey water to Tobas which are already in existence; ' Fifthly; applying the rule of necessity enunciated in Asma Jillani's case supra and rule of past and closed transactions, we are inclined to direct the Managing Director of Authority to scrutinise the claims of allottees of Shah Muzara Scheme which were have adjudged as illegal. The aforesaid functionary shall so sort out claims of genuine allottees and submit a report to Government of Punjab as well as Authority for making/issuing statements of conditions under which such genuine allottees may be accommodated. It is made clear that claims of spurious and fraudulent persons must be rejected. We further suggest to Government of Punjab to issue a condition saying that no encroacher will ever be allotted any piece of land in this area. This will deter the encroachers at large from illegally occupying tracts of land in Cholistan. It seems that encroachers have almost taken for granted that their illegal activities will not be punished and ultimately will be rewarded; ' Sixthly; the Government of Punjab is further directed to constitute a high-powered commission comprising of Member, Board of Revenue, Punjab, Commissioner, Bahawalpur Division, Bahawalpur and Managing Director, Cholistan Development Authority to survey the activities of Authority from inception upto this date and submit a report to Government/Authority for framing necessary statements of conditions with regard to allotment of land in Cholistan area. We hope that the Provincial Government which is supported by comfortable majority while providing such infrastructure will ensure the supremacy of the Authority in total transparent manner; ' Seventhly; as regards other schemes, we are inclined to hold that allotments made under the Schemes are valid and shall not be reopened on the principles of past and closed transactions.
This, however, will not preclude the Authority from examining such allotments which were made by authorities under spec of fraud and coercion. The Authority, subject to general control of Provincial Government will do every possible effort to ensure the satisfaction of the rights of the indigenous people of this area known as Cholistan; ' Eighthly; we were not given the exact details about the illegal occupants of land in Cholistan. The authority gave different statistics on different occasions. The fact, however, remains that a large number of area in Cholistan is in illegal occupation. We accordingly direct the Managing Director of the Authority to clean the area from illegal occupants within a period of six months. It will be well within his right to seek assistance of local Administration and the Provincial Government."
4. In support of the above petitions, it has been vehemently contended by the learned counsel that the above findings recorded by the High Court are contrary to factual as well as legal position inasmuch as Shahi Muzara Scheme was notified as stated above. Similarly, other schemes were also notified. The learned Advocate-General, Punjab, Mr. Ashtar Ausaf Ali has candidly conceded that the finding of the High Court that the Colonization of Government Lands Act, 1912 is not applicable, is not correct. He has also submitted that if the said A Act is applicable, it must follow that the Board of Revenue and the other heirarchy provided under the West Pakistan Land Revenue Act, 1967 would also have jurisdiction. The above concession seems to be in consonance with law.
5. In our view, the basic question in issue is as to who are the allottees of the suit land and who are occupying it unauthorisedly. This is a question of fact, which is to be determined on the basis of allotment orders/title documents to be produced by the alleged allottees before the competent forum. The occupants who have no title have no legal right to remain in occupation and, therefore, they are liable to be ejected. In our view, it will be just and proper to remand the' cases to the Board of Revenue Punjab with the direction to ask the occupants to produce their allotment/title documents, if any, and in case some of the occupants succeed in producing the allotment/title documents and also show that they have complied with the conditions of the allotment and the breach, if any, is condonable under the law, they will be allowed to continue to remain in possession. The occupants who will fail to satisfy the Board of Revenue as to their entitlement to be in possession, shall be ejected. The Board of Revenue may issue public notices before adjudicating upon the question of title so that nobody may have a grievance that he was not heard. We may also observe that the cases, which were remanded by the Board of Revenue to the Commissioner should be recalled and the same should also be decided by the Board of Revenue.
' The above petitions are converted into appeal and they are disposed of in the above terms.