P L D 1966 (W (PLP)

(2) As and when so required by the Central Government, the Government of West Pakistan shall, for any of the purposes of this Act by notification in the official Gazette, acquire land situated in the Province (excluding the Federal Capital) as the Central Government may deem it necessary to acquire. (3) On the publication of a notification under subsection (1) or subsection (2), the right, title and interest of any evacuee or persons claiming through him in the land specified in the notification shall, with effect from the date of such publication, be extinguished and the land shall vest wholly and absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumbrances. (4) The Central Government shall prescribe the cases or class of cases in which, and the period within which any charge created by a Custodian on any land acquired under subsection (1) or subsection (2), or any decree granted by a Civil or revenue Court against such land, shall be satisfied or such compensation as is determined by the High Court under subsection (3) of section 43‑A of the Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957 (XII of 1957), shall be paid, and the manner in which it shall be satisfied or paid. (5) Notifications under subsection (1) and subsection (2) may be issued from time to tinge and may relate to‑ (a) all land generally; or (b) any class of land; or (c) all land situated in a specified area; or (d) any particular land." The Central Government issued a notification dated the 15tb of April 1959 which reads as:‑ "Whereas the Central Government, in pursuance of sub section (2) of section 4 of the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, 1958 (XLVII of 1958), have asked the Government of West Pakistan to acquire for the purpose of the Act, all land as defined in clause (3) of section 2 thereof and situated in West Pakistan (excluding the Federal Capital), and already allotted under the West Pakistan Rehabilitation Settlement Scheme prepared by the Rehabilitation Commis sioner, West Pakistan under section 6 of the Pakistan Rehabilitation Act, 1956 (XLII of 1956) with the approval of the Central Government. Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by the aforesaid subsection (2), the Government of West Pakistan is hereby pleased to acquire all the land as so defined, situated and allotted." The land in dispute had been admittedly allotted at the time when this notification was issued. The respondent claims that it was allotted to him in 1956. The notification, therefore, was clearly applicable to the said property and by the acquisition the Central Government stood vested with all the rights in respect thereof. It also resulted in the extinguishments of the rights of the evacuee in the said property. The result was that the property ceased to be an evacuee property. The Custodian under sections 16 and 19 could exercise the jurisdiction only if it was an evacuee property but after the said notification he indeed had no jurisdiction whatsoever. This question was considered by the Supreme Court in Devachand Muljimal v. Deputy Settlement and Rehabilitation Commissioner (P L D 1965 S C 356) and it was held as: --‑ . "Even otherwise as soon as a property is acquired by Notifi cation under section 3 of the Act of 1958 it ceases to be evacuee and the Custodian has, thereafter, no further jurisdiction with regard to it.

6. The learned counsel, however, relied on another notifi cation of the Central Government No. R‑5/1‑60 (1462), dated the 8th of June 1960, which reads as: --‑ "In pursuance of a requisition made by the Government of Pakistan and in exercise of the powers conferred on him by subsection (2) of section 4 of the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as the "said Act)" the Governor of West Pakistan is pleased to acquire with immediate effect, for the purpose of the said Act, all lands (as defined in clause (3) of section 2 of the said Act) which are situated within the Province of West Pakistan (except the Federal Capital and the special Areas) other than‑ (i) Lands for the acquisition or sale of which sanction of the Central Government under the Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957, or under any law for the time being in force for the administration of evacuee property in West Pakistan has been accorded before the date of this notification, and (ii) Lands with regard to which any proceedings are pending on the date of this notification under the Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957." It was argued that although the land in dispute became a part of the Compensation Pool under the earlier notification, the Central Government was competent to take it out from that and this it did under this notification and excluded the land with regard to which any proceedings were pending on the date of the issue of this notification under the Pakistan (Adminis tration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957. It is true that the Central Government after the property was acquired by a notification, unless vested rights had accrued in consequence of the first notification, and this it was competent to do under section 21 of the General Clauses Act. If any such modification had been made, the property which ceased to be an evacuee property by a notification issued under section 4 would have again assumed the character of an evacuee property. This was so held by the Supreme Court in Sh. Rahmatullah v. Deputy Settlement Commissioner (P L D 1963 S C 633) where it was observed as:‑ "The argument then that any evacuee property acquired under section 3 becomes for all time part of the compensation pool is to that extent, and bearing to mind the character of the other properties which come into the pool, not capable of being accepted as an absolute proposition. It is to be remembered that the acquisition is by a mere notification, and not by a solemn and lengthy proceeding such as that provided in the Land Acquisition Act, or other instruments of a similar kind. I see no great difficulty in the way of applying the principle of section 21 of the General Clauses Act to a modification of a notification issued under section 3, such as will have the effect of excluding from the earlier acquisition, certain property specified in the second notification. It is, of course, settled law that power given by a statute to act by notification with prospective effect as in section 3, cannot be effectively exercised with retrospective effect, whatever the language that may be employed, and consequently the Central Government's notification of the 12th September 1959, must be supposed to have effect from that date and no earlier date, notwithstanding the use of words calculated to give it effect as from 8th August 1959. It is true that if in the interval between the two dates vested rights had accrued in consequence of the first notification, those could not be annulled by a mere notification of a later date."

7. The question, however, arises whether the notification dated the 8th of June 1960 is in super-session or in modification of the earlier notification dated the 15th of April 1959. There is no indication in the said notification to that effect. The later notification obviously refers to the land which was not covered by the earlier notification of the Central Government dated the 15th of April 1959. By the earlier notification all lands which were under allotment had been acquired. The notification dated P the 8th of June 1960, applies to evacuee agricultural lands other than those which were under allotment and an exception was created in respect of the land with regard to which any proceedings were pending on the date of that notification under the Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957. The effect of the two notifications when read together is that all the evacuee agricultural land which had been validly allotted prior to the 15th of April 1959 ceased to be evacuee property after the notification of the said date even if a proceeding (other than al proceeding for a declaration that it was not evacuee property) was pending in respect of any such land under the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1957. The rest of the evacuee agricultural land remained vested in the Custodian till the 8th of June 1960 when the same, except the land about which any proceedings including those for the confirmation of the transactions were pend ing under Act (XXVIII of 1958), were acquired under section 4 of the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, 1958. In this view of the matter, the land in dispute had been acquired under the notification of the 15th of April 1959 and continues to remain vested in the Central Government notwithstanding the latter notification. The Custodian, the Additional Custodian and the Deputy Custodian, therefore, had no jurisdiction to pass any order in respect of the property after the 15th of April 1959.

8. The property in dispute was an evacuee property on the 15th of April 1959. It was acquired by the notification issued under section 4 of the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, 1958, That being so, the order of the Deputy Custodian dated 19th of September 1959 and all subsequent orders except the one passed by the Custodian on the 28th of December 1962, are without jurisdiction. The impugned order of the Custodian whereby he held that he had no jurisdiction to pass the order as the land in question vested wholly in‑ the Central Government, is unexceptionable. The writ petition, therefore, cannot succeed and is accordingly dismissed. K. B. A. Petition dismissed.