P L D 1963 (W (PLP)

Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act (XXVIII of 1958), S. 3(1), (3)-Evacuee property acquired by Central Government under S. 3-Words in subsection (1) : "for any of the purposes of this Act", and in subsection (3) : "vest wholly and absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumb rances"-Such property not exempt from provisions of West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance (VI of 1959)-West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance (VI of 1959), S. 3 and West Pakistan Government Notification No. HG-10-2/59, dated 12-3-1959, Gazette, Extraordinary, dated 16-3-1959. Held, that the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 is not rendered inapplicable to the property acquired under section 3 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958 and that persons to whom pro visional transfers of such property have been made, are not prevented from instituting and prosecuting proceedings under that Ordinance against the tenants of those properties. The contention of the appellant's counsel was that since the property (shop) acquired under section 3, Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958, "vested wholly and absolutely" in the Central Government, and since, by reason of the Notification No. HG-10-2/59, dated 12-3-1959, (West Pakistan Gazette, Extraordinary, dated 16-3-1959), property "vested" in the Central Government was exempt from the pro visions of the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 by virtue of section 3 of the Ordinance, the appellant could not be evicted from the shop by proceedings taken under section 13 of the Ordinance. Held, (Per Qadeeruddin Ahmad, J., Manzoor Qadir, C. J. and Muhammad Yaqub Ali, J. agreeing) that the argument was fallacious because it does not take into consideration the limita tion that has been imposed by subsection (1) of section 3 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958 on the title of the Central Government to the property acquired by it under that section. The words "for any of the purposes of this Act", which occur in the subsection, qualify the acquisition and place all that property which is so acquired in a class by itself. Such property does not belong to or vest in the Government so as to entitle it to use it for its own purposes or for any purposes other than those of the Act. Such entire property thus does not vest in the Central Government in the sense in which, for instance, the property which devolved on it under Article 231, or accrued to it under Article 133, or was acquired by it under Article 134 of the late Constitution, vested in it. The word "vest" used in section 3 of the Act and in the notification issued under section 3 of the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 thus refers to two different concepts of ownership and should not be understood to convey exactly the same meaning. There is no other property which vests in the Central Government except the property acquired under section 3 of the Act, which the Government is legally bound to use for the purposes of the Act only. If this distinction is kept in mind, the confusion disappears and it becomes clear that the exemption of the application of the Ordinance to the property that vests in the Central Government in the ordinary sense is not applicable to the property which vests in it exclusively for the purposes of the Act. The restriction on the use of the property is imposed by subsection (1) of section 3 of the Act, but later in subsection (3) of that section the vesting is made `whole' and `absolute'. There is, however, no inconsistency between the two provisions because taken together, they mean that the vesting is complete for the purposes of the Act. Per Muhammad Yaqub Ali, J.-Since evacuee immovable property acquired under section 3 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958 was included in evacuee pools and could not be leased out by the Government, the conditions in which the provisions of the Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance could apply to it, therefore, did not come into existence. The scope of the notification under section 3 of the Wes Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959, must, accordingly, be restricted to such property vesting in the Central or Provincial Government which is leased out by them to tenants and to no other property.