Law:

Section:

(a) Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act (XII of 1957)-- ---S. 41--Evacuee nature of property--Determination of--Reference to Custodian--Jurisdiction of Courts barred--Mode of procedure to be adopted by Court when faced with question whether property was evacuee or not--Legal position stated.--[Jurisdiction]. Section 41(2) of Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957, expressly provides that whenever a question as was referred to in clause (a) of sub-section(1) of section 41 arises in any Court or authority, the Court or authority as the case may be, was obliged to state the question with relevant particulars for decision of the Custodian of Evacuee Property. It also states that till the decision of the Custodian, proceedings, in which the question arose, shall remain stayed, and that the decision of the Custodian on the question referred to shall be conclusive. A dispute concerning the evacuee nature or otherwise of property could be brought in two ways before the Custodian for his determination. One is under Section 41(2) of Act XII of 1957 by a Court or any other authority, where a question arose, whether any property is or is not an evacuee property or what right or interest, if any, an evacuee has in such property. In such situation, the Court or the authority shall state the question with relevant particulars and remit it to the Custodian for his decision. The other is under section 22 of the said Act, where-under any person claiming any right or interest in any property treated by the Custodian or a Rehabilitation Authority as evacuee property, may prefer a claim to the Custodian. The Act bars every civil or revenue Court or other authority from exercising jurisdiction to entertain or adjudicate upon any such question. Before an adverse entry could be scored out and held to be erroneous, the Court had to record a decision that the evacuee had abandoned his rights on partition of sub-continent. Section.41, Act XII of 1957, in its plain language, appears to be compulsory and imperative. It bars the jurisdiction of the civil Court to record, binding determination in regard to the right or interest of the evacuee in the particular…