2005 PLP 1215 (CLC)

The petitioner has filed this Constitutional petition with the following prayer:-- "It is therefore, most respectfully and humbly prayed that writ petition may very kindly be accepted and (i) The shorter period of validity provided upon the N.I.C. of the petitioner by the Authority compared to the other citizens declared as discriminatory, illegal, unlawful and without lawful authority. (ii) The N.I.Cs. issued to petitioner and his wife may very kindly declared to have been issued for the same longer period Annexure "D" and valid 31-12-1997. (iii) The `cancellation date' as mentioned on the reverse leaf of the computerized N. I. C. instead of `date of renewal/valid, upto" may very kindly be declared in violation of the National Data Base and Registration Ordinance, 2000 and in violation of the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951 and be declared illegal, unlawful and of no legal consequence".

2. Learned counsel, of the petitioner submits that the respondent NADRA is not observing any objective criteria in fixing the different dates for cancellation/expiry of N.I.C. being issued. Therefore, action of the respondent is hit by Article 25 of the Constitution. He further submits that action of the respondent is not in accordance with Article 4 of the Constitution. The respondents have used the word "tareekh ijra" and "tareekh tanseekh''. The word "tanseekh" means cancellation which is penal in nature. Therefore, the respondents have to cancel the N.I.C. issued to the petitioner in terms of section 18 of National Database and Regulation Authority Ordinance, 2000. The action of the respondents is not in consonance with any of provisions of aforesaid Ordinance. Therefore, action of the respondents is without lawful authority and this Court has ample jurisdiction to entertain the Constitutional petition and direct the respondents to act in accordance with law. In support of his contention he relied upon the following judgments:

Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar's case PLD 1988 Lah. 49, S.M, Yousaf's case PLD 1968 Kar. 599, Rehmat Ullah's case 1996 SCMR 156 and Muhammad Hussain's case PLD 1956 Kar. 508.

3. Learned Deputy Attorney-General submits that action of the respondents is in accordance with the provisions of aforesaid Ordinance and Rules framed thereunder. It is specifically mentioned in Rule 10(2) Form of card that card would contain following entries:-- (1) Title; (2), data; (3) information; (4) Other features as prescribed in the schedule including the date of issuance or expiry. Similarly Rule 11 prescribed period of validity. The card is issued in accordance with the policy framed under the said Ordinance and Rules framed thereunder which contained the aforesaid entries. Meaning thereby the cut-off date is prescribed in the form itself. Therefore, the card has to expire automatically after the expiry date. The word "tanseekh" is used in the sense of validity.

4. Learned counsel of respondents Nos.3 and 4 submits that National Identity Cards were initially issued under the provisions of National Registration Act, 1973 which was repealed through the National Database and Registration Authority Ordinance, 2000 wherein statutory period of two years was laid down under the second proviso of subsection (1) and subsection (2) of section 9 of NADRA Ordinance read with first proviso of subsection (1) of section 10 which prescribes deeming clause with regard to validity of old manual N.I.Cs. and the underlying registration which could be extended from time to time by the Federal Government by means of Notification in the official Gazette. He further submits that computerized N.I.Cs. are issued with fixed validity, period of each N.I.C. bears a date of expiry which is in accordance with the provisions of aforesaid Ordinance and Rules framed thereunder under section 44 of NADRA Ordinance under the name and style of National Database and Registration Authority. (National Identity Card) Rules 2002. The validity period of N.I.Cs. has been prescribed by the Federal Government accordingly wherein N.I.Cs. of card holder is stated to be valid till the year when he/she attains the age of 30, 40, 50, 60 and so on as applicable to the respective age bracket of the card holder. Accordingly the N.I.Cs. of petitioner and his spouse bear expiry dates more or less coinciding with the time when they shall have attained the age of 40 respectively He further submits that date of expiry of N.I.C. is based on age of a citizen which shall vary from one citizen to another which is clarified under section 19(4) of the Ordinance. He further submits that according to the provisions of NADRA Ordinance it is the duty of the Authority to be duly updated on regular basis both from the data acquired from registration of citizens and other data base provided by other agencies both in Government and private sector which is beneficial for multiple purposes under the law including identification, planning or any other purpose permitted by law. With a view to updating the Citizen Database, the fresh information regarding a citizen has to be acquired from time to time and, hence, the need to have a fixed period of validity assigned to N.I.Cs. He further submits that petitioner has not challenged the vires of the Ordinance and Rules framed thereunder and the action of the respondent is within the parameters of the law. Therefore, Constitutional petition is liable to be dismissed. He further submits that petitioner has, failed to point out a single provision of NADRA Ordinance which has been allegedly violated by the respondents.

5. I have given my anxious consideration to the contentions of the learned counsel of the parties and perused the record.

6. It is better and appropriate to reproduce relevant provisions of Ordinance, and Rules to resolve the controversy between the parties:- National Database and Registration Authority Ordinance, 2000 Section

5. Purpose, objects, functions and powers of the Authority.- (1) The purpose and objects of the Authority shall be to formulate and implement policies and plans for (b) may issue or renew, or cause to be issued or renewed, to any prescribed class or classes of persons, including citizens, foreigners and emigrants, or to any prescribed class or classes of things, who have got themselves, or who or which have been registered in the prescribed manner issued cards in the prescribed form and manner and on such criteria and for such period of validity thereof on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed and may receive applications therefor in the prescribed form. Section 10 National Identity Cards.

(1) The Authority shall issue or renew, or cause to be issued or renewed, in such manner and on terms and conditions, subject to every citizen who has attained the age of eighteen years and got himself registered under section 9, a card to be called National Identity Card in such form, with such period of validity upon payment of such fee in such form and manner as may be prescribed. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Ordinance, all such National Identity Cards as are to be issued to a citizen under this Ordinance by means of a manual or computerized laser printing process (as applicable in the Districts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi) shall not be issued for a period of validity beyond two years after the commencement of this Ordinance, or such longer or shorter period as may be notified by the Federal Government with a view to promoting uniformity, authenticity and technological advancement in the registration for and issuance of National Identity Cards. Section

18. Power to cancel, impound or confiscate cards.-- (1) A card issued under this Ordinance shall be the property of the Federal Government and may, by an order in writing under the seal of the Authority or an Officer authorized by it in this behalf, be required to be returned and shall also be liable to be cancelled, impugned or confiscated by a like order. Section

44. Power to make rules.- The Federal Government may by Notification in the official Gaze, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this Ordinance. National Database and Registration Authority (National Identity Card) Rules 2002 Rules

10. Form of card.

(1) A card issued to a resin citizen shall be in the form set out in Schedule I and a card issued to a non-resident citizen shall be in the form set out in Schedule II. (2) A card shall bear the title, data, information and other features provided in the, said Schedules including the date of issuance or expiry. Rule

11. Period of validity.

(a) A card issued under these rules shall be valid for such period as is notified by the Federal Government in this behalf by means of a Notification in the, official Gazette. The Federal Government may notify different periods of validity of cards for different classes of persons based on,

SCHEDULE-I (See rule 10) image page 1220 SCHEDULE-II (See Rule 10) image page 1221 In case Schedule-I and Schedule-II be read together then it is crystal clear that the word "tanseekh" is used in place of word "validity". Therefore, the contention of the petitioner has no force. It is mere translating the word "expiry" or "validity" by using the word "Tanseekh" in Urdu column. In case Schedule-II in English is not prescribed the word "validity" then there may be some confusion by using the word "Tanseekh".

7. It is better and appropriate to highlight meanings of the following words as defined in' different dictionaries to resolve the controversy between the parties:-- (1) Cancel. Cancel means Repeal (Blacks Law Dictionary Sixth Edition); Cancel means terminated (Words and Phrases permanent Edition Volume VI); Cancel means rescined something already arranged "tanseekh karna" (Kitabistan Practical Dictionary) Cancel means "tanseekh dobara" (Ferozesons English Dictionary New Edition). (2) Expiration. Expiration means termination from mere laps of time (Blacks Law Dictionary Sixth Edition) Expire means to terminate (Corpus Juris Secundum Vol.35). Expiry means termination (of a period of time) (Kitabistan Practical Dictionary) khatma Expiry means termination (Ferozesons English Dictionary New Edition) khatma Expiry means: To come to an end or to put, an end or to terminate or to become void or become extinct as held by Indian Supreme Court in Pradip Kumar's case AIR 1974 SC 2151. (3) Validity. Validity means legal sufficiency (Black's Law Dictionary Sixth Edition). Validity means legal strength or force (Corpus Juris Secundum Vol.91) Validity means being valid. "Qanoni tor per jaiz" (Kibtabistan Practical Dictionary. Validity means " drastic jawaz" (Ferozsons English Dictionary New Edition). (4) Tanseekh. The word Tanseekh means Repeal (Kitabistan Standard Dictionary Urdu to English. In case the meaning of the aforesaid words are put in juxtaposition then it is crystal clear that all these words are interchangeable. Therefore, contention of the counsel of the petitioner has no force in addition to clarification by Schedule-II attached with the Rules in English under Rule 10 wherein it is specifically mentioned as "date of issue" and "date of validity"..

8. The second contention has also no force as the respondents have formulated uniform policy with regard to age of the citizens. Therefore, there is no discrimination and Article 25 of the Constitution is not attracted. In arriving to this conclusion I am fortified by the law laid down by the superior Courts in the following judgments:-- I.A. Sherwani's case 1991 SCMR 1041 in which the Honourable Supreme Court has considered all the case-law on the subject and laid down principles with regard to application of Article 25 of the Constitution. Sakina Begum's case 1995 SCMR

334. It is also settled principle of law that with regard to the maintainability of the Constitutional petition it is the duty and obligation of the petitioner to point out that the action of the respondents is in violation of the rules and regulations of the respondents but as mentioned above, the counsel of the H petitioner failed to point out that action of the respondents is in derogation of their rules and regulations. Therefore, Constitutional petition is not maintainable as the law laid down by the Honourable Supreme Court in Ali Mir's case 1984 SCMR

433. In view of what has been discussed above, this writ petition has no merit and the same is dismissed. S.A.K./M-1066/L Petition dismissed.