M B NAMAZI Vs. DEPUTY CUSTODIAN OF EVACUEE PROPERTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by one N. B. Namazi under Article 226(1) of the Constitution to issue a writ of 'certiorari' to call for the records of the proceedings on the file of the Assistant Custodian of Evacuee Property, Madras in Nos. 224 & 224 A of 1949 & to quash the orders passed on the two matters respectively on the same day, 10-4-1950. The order in A. C. No. 224 A of 1949 declared one M.E. Namazi an evacuee under Section 2(d)(i) of the Administration of Evacuee Property Ordinance (XXVII (27) of 1949) & his one- fourth share in Messrs. Gani & Sons as evacuee property under Section 2 (f) of the same Ordinance. By the order in A. C. 224 of 1949 three persons, namely, Gani Namazi, M.B. Namazi the applicant herein & M.I. Namazi were declared to be intending evacuees under Section 19 of the same Ordinance.

(2.) The undisputed facts are as follows: There was a firm known as Gani & Sons doing business for several years in the City of Madras. From 1943 the firm consisted of four partners, M. A. Gani (the father) & his three sons, M.I. Namazi, M.E. Namazi & M.B. Namazi. From 1946 the share of each partner was fixed at one fourth. In September 1948 one of the partners M.E. Namazi left for Karachi where he was married & he has since been residing at Karachi. Sometime in 1949, the business of a company in Karachi known as Keale & Co. was purchased by M.A. Gani, the father. All these facts are admitted. The applicant further states that though it is true that M.E. Namazi has settled in Karachi i.e., in Pakistan, he has an intention of returning to India after the lifetime of his mother-in-law at whose instance he stayed away in Karachi. It is further stated that there was a dissolution of the partnership from 1-4-1949 when M.E. Namazi ceased to be a partner & took away the moneys representing his share in the partnership & it was with these moneys & for his sole benefit that the business of Keale & Co. was purchased. It is also his case that from 1-4-1949 a new partnership was formed with three partners, M.B. Namazi, M.I. Namazi & Fatma Begum, wife of M. A. Gani.

(3.) Proceedings were taken under the provisions of the Ordinance abovementioned (XXVII of 1949) & the partners of Gani & Sons were called upon to show cause why they should not be treated as "intending evacuees under Section 19 of the Ordinance". "Intending evacuee" according to the definition in Clause 2 (e) of the Ordinance means,