Law: Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958

Section:

  Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act (XXVIII of 1958),S. 2(4) and Sch. paras. 1 & 3-House Chief Settlement Commissioner has jurisdiction to divide into two portions-Division need not necessarily be vertical even if possible--Whether house was divided into two units or was one independent premises before Partition-Question of fact.   Writ-Objections not raised below nor affidavit filed that objections were taken but were not considered by lower authorities--- Cannot be urged before High Court exercising writ jurisdiction--- Constitution of Pakistan (1962), Art. 98. JUDGMENT   This is a writ petition whereby the petitioner has prayed that the order of the Chief Settlement Commissioner dated the 31st of August 1961 be quashed. The facts shortly put are these : The petitioner was in occupation of the upper portion of a house bearing No. C-106/7, situated in Sukkur, while the respondent No. 2 was in occupation of the ground floor. The petitioner and the respondent No. 2 had both been in occupation of the two portions of the house since 1948. The petitioner applied in CH form for the transfer of the entire house, while the respondent No. 2 also applied in LH form for the transfer of the entire house to himself. The Deputy Settlement Commissioner on 9th February 1961, rejected the claim of the respondent No. 2 mainly on the ground that he was a local and "owns his own property in Pakistan". On appeal by respondent No. 2, the Additional Settlement and Rehabilitation Commissioner on 24th February 1961, maintained the order of the Deputy Settlement Commissioner on the same ground. The relevant portion of his order reads as under :-   "He (respondent No. 2) admits that he is a local person and owns a share in a house inherited from his deceased father. He wants that the house in C-106/7 Sukkur be divided and his portion be transferred to him. The respondent is admittedly a claimant and has superior right. The house cannot be divided under the rules and given to a local person."   On a revision to the Chief Settlement Commissioner, he allowed the revision on the ground that "according to the…