Law: Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act (XXVIII of 1958)

Section: 20(5)

Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act (XXVIII of 1958) S. 20(5)-Opportunity of hearing-Respondents in possession of property in dispute and submitting application for transfer of such property before impugned auction on ground of having raised construction thereon at their own expense after obtaining permission from Rehabilitation Department-Such applications not disposed of before auction of property took place-Petitioners, in circumstances, even if given a hearing by Settlement Department result could not have been different and matter had to be remanded for disposal after considering applications of respondents-Settlement Commissioner though required to give a hearing to auction-purchaser under S. 20 (4) of Act XXVIII of 1958 yet in peculiar circumstances of case in hand, such irregularity in not giving hearing to auction-purchaser, held, immaterial.-[Natural justice, principles of]. Date of hearing: 21st February, 1981                                                                                                            ORDER ANWARUL HAQ, C. J.--This petition seeks leave to appeal ,against the judgment of a Division Bench of the Lahore High Court dated the 28th of October, 1975, by which the Letters Patent appeal filed by the petitioners, was dismissed. The appeal before the Division Bench had arisen out of an order made by a learned Judge in chamber, whereby he had dismissed a writ petition filed by the petitioners' predecessor-in-interest Mirza Moazam Baig to the matter of the transfer of an evacuee Ahata situate in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in the Lahore District. The Ahata had been put to auction on the 16th of June, 1960, and Mirza Moazam Baig had offered the highest bid of Rs. 50,000. The auction was confirmed by the Additional Settlement Commissioner on the 5th of August, 1962. The respondents had objected to the auction on the ground that they had…