- (1.) The appellants have filed this appeal on a certificate of fitness granted on 25th May 1956, by the High Court of Punjab under Art. 133 of the Constitution. The appeal is directed against the judgment and order of the said High Court pronounced on 18th October 1955. By that order the said High Court dismissed the application made by the appellants to the said High Court under Art. 226 praying for a writ in the nature of a writ of certiorari to call for the records and to quash the order of the Deputy Custodian General passed on 18th August 1953, whereby he cancelled the allotment of lands in the village of Ratauli, Tehsil Jagadhari, District Ambala, made to the appellants on 7th June 1950.
(2.) The events which led up to the present appeal may now be briefly stated. The appellants are refugees from Rawalpindi. On the partition of the country the appellants migrated to India abandoning 273 acres 6 kanals of first grade land irrigated by perennial canals situate in Chak No. 205/R. B., Tehsil Jaranwala, District Lyalpur. In 1947 the appellants were given two units of lands in two villages, Todarpur and Naharpur, in Tehsil Jagadhari, District Ambala on a temporary basis. At the time of quasi-permanent allotment in November 1949, the appellants were given 133 acres 15 1/4 units of land in two villages Khandua and Naharpur, which lands were of the second grade. On 20th February 1950 the appellants allotment in Khandua was cancelled and the whole of 133 acres 15 1/4 units of land was allotted to them in village Naharpur. In order to accommodate a group of people known as Brij Lal group in village Naharpur the allotment made to the appellants was cancelled on 6th June 1950, and the appellants were directed by the Director General, Relief and Rehabilitation (Additional Custodian), hereinafter referred to as the Director General, to be shifted from village Naharpur to the villages of Jaurian and Kottarkhans in Tehsil Jagadhari in the District of Ambala, where the lands were of the first grade. It appears that on 7th June 1950, the appellants went post-haste to the headquarters of the Relief and Rehabilitation department protesting against their eviction from Naharpur in view of the improvements alleged to have been made by them in that village and prayed that they should be retained there. In this application the appellants did not pray for an allotment of land in village Ratauli. The Director General Directed the Revenue Assistant to make a report on that application. On the same date the Revenue Assistant promptly reported that the appellants were sitting allottees of village Naharpur, which was a village of second grade, that the appellants were entitled to first grade lands and that consequently they had been ordered to be shifted from the second grade village to the first grade villages of Jaurian and Kotarkhana in Tehsil Jagadhari. With these remarks he concluded the report with the word "submitted." In the margin of this report, however, the following words were endorsed: "Area also is reserved for Railway Workshop in village Ratauli. It approved Prem Singh and Narain Singh may be allotted land in the village." It is not easily understandable how, if the land in village Ratauli was reserved for Railway Workshop, such reserved land could be recommended for allotment to the appellants. There is an endorsement by the Director General of the word "Approved" on the same date. The extreme expedition with which the order of 6th June 1950 was cancelled and a fresh allotment was made in favour of the appellants in villages Ratauli, which they did not ask for, evidently created some doubts in the mind of the Deputy Custodian General as to the regularity of the procedure when he made his order on 18th August 1953. Be that as it may, he did not decide the matter on the strength of such doubts. After the Director General had "approved" the report a sanad was issued on 13th July 1950, in favour of the appellants in respect of 133 acres 15 1/4 units of land in village Ratauli and the appellants claim to have been put in possession of this land on 15th July 1950.
(3.) The respondent No. 2 (N. R. Batra) is the grand-son of one Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra (since deceased) who had migrated from Phularwan, Tehsil Bhalwal in the District of Shahapur leaving behind about 543 acres of first class land irrigated by canal in the District of argodha. On 15th December 1947 36 acres of land were allotted to Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra in village Ratauti on a temporary basis. This temporary allotment of 36 acres was, however, reduced to an allotment of 12 acres for at that time no single allotment was being made for more than 12 acres. The Rehabilitation Department having, later on, issued instructions that persons, who had left large holdings in Pakistan, could be allotted more than 12 acres, Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra on 5th June 1948, applied to the Director General for the allotment in the same village of Ratauli of the balance of the lands to which he was entitled. Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra died on 29th June 1948, leaving certain heirs of whom the respondent No. 2, N. R. Batra, is one. Before any allotment could be made in favour of the heirs of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra, a notification was issued on 9th September 1949, at the instance of the Northern Railway reserving the lands in certain villages including the village of Ratauli for the purpose of construction of Railway Workshop. In view of the fact that there was no land available in the village of Ratauli, in consequence of the reservation of the lands for the Railways, an area of 112.7 acres was on 11th November 1949, allotted in the name of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra in the village of Mussambal Mussalmanan. In February, 1950 there was a rumour that the Rehabilitation Department had decided that no single allottee would be allowed to have more than 60 acres of land. In view of this rumour the heirs of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra became apprehensive that the allotment of 112.7 acres in the single name of Rai Sahib might be reduced and so B. L Batra, a son of the Rai Sahib, made a representation on behalf of all the heirs of the Rai Sahib to the Director General that as they were three brothers and the share of each in 112.7 acres was only about 37 acres, their allotment of 112.7 acres should not be cancelled and that if the allotment for any reason was cancelled they should be accommodated in village Ratauli. In February or March, 1950, the heirs of Rai Sahib Maya Bhan Batra were allotted lands in three villages, Mussambal Mussalmanan (64 acres 14 3/4 units), Kotarkhana (44 acres 10 3/4 units) and Chahju Nagla (2 acres 13 1/2 units). ;