1985 PLP 647 (SCMR)

Ch. Muhammad Hasan, Advocate Supreme Court and Rana Maqbool Ahmad Qadri, Advocate‑on‑Record for Petitioners. Zamir Hussain Zaidi, Advocate Supreme Court for Respondents. Date of hearing: 15th September, 1981. SHAFIUR RAHMAN, J.‑‑ The petitioners who claim to be informers, seek leave to appeal against the judgment of the appeal bench of the Lahore High Court dated 11‑4‑1981 whereby the dismissal of their constitutional petition challenging the preference of respondents 2 to 4 was upheld.

2. Mahnda, respondent No.6, was allotted and confirmed agricultural land in Chak No.90/J. B. Tehsil Toba Tek Singh District Faisalabad in April, 1952. The petitioners also got allotment in 1953 in the same Chak. On 13th of July, 1957 respondents Nos.2 to 4 made an application to the Officer Incharge Central Record Room, Lahore, complaining that Mahnda had obtained excess verification of land abandoned by him and on the strength of such a verification he had got excess allotment. They sought the cancellation of the excess area and its allotment to them as informers. On 14th October, 1958 while such proceedings for re‑verification etc. were pending on the complaint filed by them, the petitioners filed an appeal against the order of allotment passed in favour of Mahnda in 1952. A conditional order was passed on this appeal that if on re‑verification the entitlement of Mahnda was found to be less than his allotment the area resumed should be made available to the petitioners for satisfaction of their claim. The respondents‑informers also filed an appeal and then a revision followed by a constitutional petition on which the whole matter was remanded to the Settlement authorities for decision afresh. On the 26th May, 1967 the Additional Settlement and Rehabilitation Commissioner preferred the respondents as informers over the petitioners. This aggrieved the petitioners who filed a constitutional petition joining with them as writ‑petitioner the original allottee Mahnda, now the respondent. Their claim was that they had approached the proper and the competent authority and should have been preferred over the respondents‑informers notwithstanding the fact that the respondents supplied the information earlier. The learned Judge in the High Court after a thorough examination dismissed the claim of the petitioners. While doing so, the learned Judge formed the opinion that the petitioner "having learnt about the efforts of the respondents for cancellation and re allotment of the aforesaid excess area filed an appeal before the Deputy Rehabilitation Commissioner (Land) on the 14th of October, 1958, against the original order of allotment passed in 1952 in favour of Mahnda."

3. An Intra‑Court Appeal was filed by the petitioners but that too was dismissed on the ground that as informers the respondents had a priority over the petitioners.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner relied on paragraph 71(A) of the Rehabilitation Scheme and section 14‑A(1) of the Displaced Persons (Land) Settlement Act, 1958 and contended that an informer had not only to supply information but additionally the information had to be correct so as to entail resumption of the excess allotment and to result in re-allotment. This presupposed that the information must be laid before the competent authority, and the only competent authority to ensure verification, to adjudicate upon the claim and to make the allotment after cancellation was the settlement authority, which had been approached by the petitioners. The respondents‑informers had approached the wrong authority and could not benefit from the correctness of the information supplied by them.

5. A reference to paragraph 71(A) of the West Pakistan Rehabilitation Scheme bears it out that such informers were to be compensated as helped the Rehabilitation Department (Land) in unearthing cases of forged and bogus allotments. The expression 'Rehabilitation Department' cannot for the purpose of such beneficial provision be given a restrictive technical or narrow meaning as to confine it only to settlement authorities competent to cancel the allotment and to make the re-allotment. Besides the finding of fact recorded by the learned Judge in Chambers in the High Court clearly suggests that information was supplied by the respondents and the petitioners intervened while active inquiries were going on with respect to the information with a view to deny them the fruits of their efforts. The Courts were, therefore, justified in denying the petitioners the relief sought for by them. It is not being denied that the respondents had laid the information earlier in point of time, that the information supplied by them was certain and definite and that inquiry was being conducted actively into the matter. The petitioner cannot by filing an appeal after 5 years deprive the respondents of the statutory benefit available to them. The petitioner has no merit and leave to appeal is refused. M. I, Leave refused.