Full Judgment Text & Judicial Ruling

2004 S C M R 1411

2004 S C M R 1411

[Supreme Court of Pakistan]

Present: Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Falak Sher, JJ

TAJ DIN alias TAJ MUHAMMAD ---Petitioner

Versus

PROVINCE OF THE PUNJAB through Collector, Rahimyar Khan---Respondent

Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal No.2298/L of 2001 and Civil Misc. Application No.215/L of 2004.

(On appeal from order, dated 7-5-2001, passed by the Lahore High Court, Bahawalpur Bench, Bahawalpur, in C.R. No.291-D of 2001).

Colonization of Government Lands (Punjab) Act (V of 1912)-----

----S.24---Constitution of Pakistan (1973 (1973), Art.185(3) --- Lease of Government land, cancellation of---Concurrent findings of facts by the Courts below---Grievance of petitioner was that his lease was cancelled by the authorities---Plea raised by the authorities was that the lease was for five years and the same was not renewed---Suit filed by the petitioner was dismissed by the Trial Court and the judgment and decree was maintained by Appellate Court as well as by High Court ---Validity-- Revenue authorities heard the petitioner and after going through the record rightly cancelled lease of the petitioner---High Court had considered the case in its proper perspective and after going through the material on record had rightly dismissed the revision petition of the petitioner with sound and cogent reasons---Order passed by High Court was based on proper appreciation of facts and law and no misreading or non-reading of the material or any contravention of S.24 of Colonization of Government Lands (Punjab) Act, 1912 was found therein---Leave to appeal was refused.

Ch. Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Senior Advocate Supreme Court and Mahmudul Islam, Advocate-on-Record (absent) for Petitioner.

Nemo for Respondent.

Date of hearing: 4th June, 2004.

JUDGMENT

SYED DEEDAR HUSSAIN SHAH, J.---Petitioner seeks leave to appeal against the judgment of the Lahore High Court, Bahawalpur Bench, Bahawalpur, in Civil Revision No.291-D of 2001, dated 7-5-2001.

2. Brief facts of the case are that according to the petitioner he was allotted land measuring 12 acres and 4 Kanals, in Chak No. 80-P, Tehsil Rahim Yar Khan on lease for a period of five years; that he was also delivered possession; and that he also took efforts to make the land fertile an cultivable. Subsequently, the Deputy Commissioner/Collector Rahim Yar Khan, after hearing the petitioner, cancelled the lease on 21-1-1986, which order was challenged by the petitioner before the Additional Commissioner Bahawalpur, which was also rejected on 8-2-1986. Thereafter the petitioner filed Civil Suit No.56 of 1998 in the Court of Senior Civil Judge, Rahim Yar Khan with the averments that he was leased out the above mentioned State land and he by putting hard labour and investing a huge amount, made the land cultivable but the Revenue authorities cancelled his lease.

3. The respondent- Province of the Punjab through Collector contested the suit and raised legal objections and submitted that the suit is barred under the specific provisions of Colonization of Government Lands (Punjab) Act, 1912 (hereinafter referred to As the Act) that he was allotted the suit property as a tenant for a specific period of five years and that accordingly to tenancy agreement wherein it was specifically mentioned that after expiry of the lease period he will restore the property back to the Provincial Government.

4. Out of the pleadings of the parties, the trial Court framed four adduced evidence. The trial Court, after considering me evidence and hearing the learned counsel for the parties, dismissed the suit of the petitioner vide judgment, dated 21-11-2000. The petitioner assailed the said judgment before the First Appellate Court and the learned Additional District Judge, Rahim Yar Khan, dismissed the Civil Appeal No. 110 of 2000 on 3-2-2001 and maintained the judgment/decree of the Trial Court.

5. Feeling aggrieved, the petitioner approached the learned High Court by filing civil revision mentioned hereinabove which was also dismissed by a learned Single Judge in Chambers vide order impugned herein. Hence this petition.

6. We have heard Ch. Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, learned counsel for the petitioner who, inter alia, contended that the Courts below had not considered the case in its proper perspective and that the impugned order of the Revenue hierarch is in violation of the Act.

7. We have considered the arguments of the learned counsel for the petitioner and carefully examined the material available on record. Admittedly, the petitioner was leased out the State land for a period of five years, which was not renewed and the same was cancelled. Record further shows that Revenue authorities heard the petitioner and after going through the record rightly cancelled the lease of the petitioner, which order was assailed by the petitioner before the Courts below.

8. The learned Judge in Chambers had considered the case in its proper perspective and after going through the material available rightly dismissed the revision petition of the petitioner with sound and cogent reasons. The impugned order is based on the proper appreciation of facts and law. The contentions of the learned counsel for the petitioner are not borne out from the record. There is no misreading or non-reading of the material or any contravention of section 24 of the Act.

9. The petition is without merit and substance, I which is hereby dismissed alongwith the listed application and leave declined.

M.H./T-5/SC Petition dismissed.

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