Judgment

GHULAM HASAN, J. : This petition by twenty persons under Article 32 of the Constitution prays for the issue of a writ of certiorari , mandamus and prohibition or other suitable order or directions, quashing the orders dated the 1st July, 1952, and the 14th October, 1953, passed by the Deputy Commissioner (Deputy Custodian Evacuee Property) Karnal, in the State of East Punjab, hereinafter referred to as the 1st respondent, whereby the petitioners are alleged to have been deprived of their fundamental right of property and are unable to hold the same within the meaning of Article 19 (1) (f) of the Constitution.

2. The petitioners are displaced persons from Pakistan who migrated to India after the partition of 1947. They owned certain agricultural land in Tehsil Chunian, District Lahore, which according to them, was mostly canal irrigated land of the first grade, yielding on an average 16 to 20 maunds of wheat per acre. It appears that upon partition, the East Punjab Government was confronted with the serious problem of settling agricultural lands abandoned by Muslim evacuees from the areas, now called East Punjab and Pepsu. Accordingly they decided on the 15th September, 1947 to allot evacuee lands for the current Kharif and the Rabi of 1947-48. This decision was obviously taken with a view to prevent famine and fall in agricultural production in the area, as also to provide means of livelihood for the agricultural refugees.

In pursuance of this policy the petitioners were settled on land in village Dhakata - admittedly a first grade village, - Tehsil Thansar, district Karnal, in the State of East Punjab. Their claims were verified under the provisions of the 151 East Punjab Refugees (Registration of Land Claims) Act XII of 1948. They were allotted specific areas of land under the Settlement of Conditions, contained in Notification Nos. 489/S, dated the 8th July, 1949, on quasi permanent basis in lieu of the lands left by them in Pakistan. Subsequently the petitioner s lands left in Pakistan, are alleged to have been downgraded with the result that the lands allotted to them were re-allotted on the 25th April, 1951, to Ishar Singh and others who appears as respondents to oppose the present petition.

In July 1951 the petitioners moved the East Punjab High Court under Article 226 for a writ restraining their eviction form the lands but as no allotment had been cancelled by that time they withdrew the petition some time in 1952. The original allotment was, however, cancelled on the 1st July, 1952. This order was challenged by a revision under Section 27 of the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950. The Deputy Custodian General dismissed the revision petition on the 2nd December, 1953, holding that the order of the Deputy Custodian was not illegal or without jurisdiction on the ground that no notice of cancellation of allotment had been issued to them.

It was observed in the course of the judgment that the petitioners had conceded before the Assistant Custodian on the 9th May, 1952, that the lands abandoned by them in Pakistan were second grade lands but had claimed that they should, nevertheless, be allotted first grade lands.

3. The order of the 1st July, 1952, is the first order which is challenged before us as being without jurisdiction and infringing the fundamental right of the petitioners.

4. It is alleged in the petition that notwithstanding the cancellation of the allotment, the petitioners remained in actual cultivating possession of the lands allotted to them but an order was passed by the first respondent on the 14th October, 1953, which is to the following effect :

"Govt. have decided that in the case of person who were able to secure possession of part of land, the order should be deemed to have been implemented. In the case of M/S. Ishar Singh Rakha Singh and others of the village Dhokala they were in possession of the part of the land before the 6th May, 1953. As such they should be given possession of the