RAJIVE BHALLA, J. - (1.) BY way of the second appeal, the appellant, seeks to impugn the judgments and decrees passed by the trial Court, as also by the first appellate Court.
(2.) THE appellant, filed a suit for possession, by way of pre-emption on the plea that he was a co-sharer and, therefore, entitled to pre-empt the sale effected by sale-deed No. 842 dated 2.7.1993. During the pendency of the suit, Haryana Amendment Act, 1995, was enacted. Pursuant to the aforementioned Act, Section 15 of the Punjab Pre-emption Act stood amended and the right of a co-sharer to seek pre-emption of a sale effected by another co-sharer was delected. The learned trial Court, dismissed the appellant's suit on the ground that the right to pre-emption no longer survived. The first appellate Court upheld the judgment and decree of the learned trial Court and dismissed the appeal. Counsel for the appellant contends that as the appellant was admittedly a co-sharer and as the amendment had come into force after the filing of the suit, the amendment could not affect subsisting rights and, therefore, the learned Courts below erred in dismissing the suit and the appeal.
(3.) COUNSEL for the respondents, on the other hand, contends that the right of pre-emption, must survive (a) on the date of the sale-deed, (b) the filing of the suit and (3) upto the date of the decree. If the right to pre-emption ceases before any of these dates, a suit for pre-emption cannot be decreed. As amendment to the Punjab Pre-emption Act extinguished the right to pre-empt, during the pendency of the suit, the Courts below rightly dismissed the suit and the appeal.;