Law: Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Ordinance (XV of 1949)

Section: 36 (S)

P L D 1957 Supreme Court (Pak.) 63       (a) Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Ordi nance (XV of 1949)----   ----S. 36 (S)-Custodian may suo Moto review his own order at any time-Review of an order passed in review-Competent-Conditions for review analogous to those given in Civil Procedure Code (V of 1908), O. XLVII, r. I -Administration of Evacuee Property Rules, 1950, r. 17(3) -Intra vires-Custodian, judicial cum-executive officer.   Held, that the Custodian may review suo moto his own order at any time, and that the rule to that effect, viz., Rule 17 (3), Administration of Evacuee Property Rules, 1950, is intra vires.   (The order of Custodian dealt with in this case was one passed in review of an earlier order which itself had been passed in the exercise of power of Review).   Although the Ordinance did not state in detail the circumstances in which a review of an order by the Custodian or Additional Custodian should be permissible, recourse could be had to the general law for ascertaining the principles governing the exercise of this power in the relevant respect. For the purposes of the present case, those principles were set out in Order XLVII, rule 1 of the Civil P. C.   The substantive law does not require that for the purposes of review, a Custodian or an Additional Custodian should be moved by any party in that behalf. This was not to be expected, since these authorities do not exercise purely judicial powers. It will be evident from the fact that all evacuee property vests in the Custodian by virtue of section 6 of the Ordinance, that the power which he and his substitutes and subordinates exercise is essentially an executive power, for carrying out the purposes of the law namely, the ascertainment, seizure and administration of evacuee property. Bearing in mind the condition which resulted from the sudden shift of population between Pakistan and India which occurred in the period immediately following the Partition and that for the purpose of the exercise of the Custodian's powers, evidence of title to abandoned properties was not always readily available, it must necessarily be assumed that…