On the same date the Revenue Assistant promptly reported that the appellants were sitting allottees of village Naharpur, which was a village of second grade, that the appellants were entitled to first grade lands and that companysequently they had been ordered to be shifted from the second grade village to the first grade villages of Jaurian and Kotarkhana in Tehsil Jagadhari.
On 15th December 1947 36 acres of land were allotted to Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra in village Ratauli on a temporary basis.
It appears that the application made by B.L. Batra on February 20, 1950 for allotment of land to them in village Ratauli where they originally had temporary allotments, was followed up by another application by the heirs of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra on March 23, 1951.
After the Director General had approved the report sand was issued on 13th July 1950, in favour of the appellants in respect of 133 acres 15 1/4 units of land in village Ratauli and the appellants claim to have been put in possession of this land on 15th July 1950.
By that order the said High Court dismissed the application made by the appellants to the said High Court under Article 226 praying for a writ in the nature of a writ of certiorari to call for the records and to quash the order of the Deputy Custodian General passed on 18th August 1953, whereby he cancelled the allotment of lands in the village of Ratauli, Tehsil Jagadhari, District Ambala, made to the appellants on 7th June 1950.
appeal may number be briefly stated.
In 1947 the appellants were given two units of lands in two villages, Todarpur and Naharpur, in Tehsil Jagadhari, District Ambala on a temporary basis.
Respondents Nos.
3 and 4 Hargobind and Jai Kishan are the sons of L. Devan Chand Suri, who arc also refugees from Rawalpindi.
In the margin of this report, however, the following words were endorsed Area also is reserved for Railway Workshop in village Ratauli.
The Deputy.
It appears from a letter dated April 28, 1950, from the Chief Administrative Officer Engineering E. P. Railway, Delhi to the Chief Engineer Development Punjab P. W. D. Buildings and Roads Branch.
The above cancellation, however, was rescinded and the land was restored to them.
Accordingly the allotment of 93 acres to respondents 3 and 4 in village Ratauli was cancelled.
The Director General directed the Revenue Assistant to make a report on that application.
Simla that owing to the stringency of funds the project for companystruction of the Railway Workshop had been abandoned and that the numberification for acquisition of the lands might number be published in the Punjab Government Gazette.
It appears that after the Railways had abandoned the project of building a workshop on the lands reserved for them, the Officer on Special Duty AMBALA wrote to the Director General Relief and Rehabilitation asking him to reserve the lands released by the Railways for accommodating those who had been ousted from Chandigarh, the new capital of the Punjab.
There is an endorsement by the Director General of the owed Approved on the same date.
They applied for allotment in the District of Karnal as unsatisfied claimants.
It is number easily understandable how, if the land in village Ratauli was reserved for Railway Workshop, such reserved land companyld be recommended for allotment to the appellants.
With these remarks he companycluded the report with the word submitted.
A remainder appears to have been sent on August 1, 1951.
The events which led up to the present.
The fact of this application is admitted by the Additional Custodian in his written Statement but he stated that it was number forthcoming, presumably meaning that it had been mislaid in the office.
On August 31, 1950, the Director General allotted those 93 acres of land to Respondents NOS.
This application was dealt with and disposed of by the Deputy Custodian General, who held that under the circumstances, the allotment in favour of the appellants in village Ratauli companyld number be allowed to stand.
In order to accommodate a group of people known as Brij Lal group in village Naharpur the allotment made to the appellants was cancelled on 6th June 1950, and the appellants were directed by the Director General, Relief and Rehabilitation Additional Custodian , hereinafter referred to as the Director General, to be shifted from village Naharpur to the villages of Jaurian and Kottarkhans in Tehsil Jagadhari in the District of Ambala, where the lands were of the first grade.
3 and 4 and the balance of 82 acres were allotted to him in two other villages Mahalanwali and Habibpur.
to the extent of 112 S. A.At the time of quasi permanent allotment in November 1949, the appellants were given 133 acres 15 1/4 units of land in two villages Khandua and Naharpur, which lands were of the second grade.
After allotting 133 acres 15 1/4 units of land in village Ratauli there remained a balance of 93 acres still available in that village for allotment.
Custodian General made the following order on August 18, 1953 The allotment of respondents 4 to 6 Prem Singh etc.
If approved Prem Singh and Narain Singh may be allotted land in the village.
The extreme expedition with which the order of 6th June 1950 was cancelled and a fresh allotment was made in favour of the appellants in village Ratauli, which they did number ask for, evidently created some doubts in the mind of the Deputy Custodian General as to the regularity of the procedure when he made his order on 18th August 1953.
It is number clear at all that this information was passed on to the Relief and Rehabilitation Department at any time prior to September 1950.
Be that as it may, he did number decide the matter on the strength of such doubts.
They were entitled to an allotment of 175 acres in lieu of the lands they had left behind in Pakistan.
He also rejected the companytention of the appellants that if anybody were to be evicted iron village Ratauli in order to accommodate the heirs of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra, it should be Respondents Nos.
This temporary allotment of 36 acres was, however, reduced to an allotment of 12 acres, for at that time numbersingle allotment was being made for more than 12 acres.
The appellants are refugees from Rawalpindi.
On July 17, 1952, the Financial Commissioner as custodian rejected the application of Respondent No.
3 and 4 Hargobind and Jai Kishan, who had obtained their allotment in that village during the pendency of the dispute.
The respondent NO.
205/R B., Tehsil Jaranwala, District Lyalpur.
Not having received any response from the office of the Director General, the respondent No.
On the partition of the companyntry the appellants migrated to India abandoning 273 acres 6 kanals of first grade land irrigated by perennial canals situate in Chalk No.
2, N.R. Batra, one of the heirs of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra, on December 10, 1951, made a like representation to the Financial Commissioner Relief and Rehabilitation hereinafter referred to as the Financial Commissioner, who was the Custodian.
The appeal is directed against the judgment and order of the said High Court pronounced on 18th October 1955.
R. Das, C.J. The appellants have filed this appeal on a certificate of fitness granted on 25th May 1956, by the High Court of Punjab under Article 133 of the Constitution.
