Supreme Court Slaps HP Govt. With Rs 25,000 Fine

The Supreme Court has expressed strong disapproval of the Himachal Pradesh government filing an appeal against the High Court order setting aside the state’s decision to declare the property of an individual as evacuee property. The State was well aware of the fact that the owner of the property never visited Pakistan and died in India in 1983. The term ‘evacuated property’ is used to refer to property left behind by people who migrated to Pakistan during the partition.

A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Sanjay Karol dismissed the appeal with a fine of Rs 25,000 on the state government. The fine shall be paid to the writ petitioners before the High Court. In its order, the bench said, “Despite the accepted position that the person (property owner) never left India and despite the facts given by the Additional Advocate General, the State has opted to file an appeal against the orders of the Single Judge and the Division Bench.”

This action of the state should be condemned. In the petition, the state government argued that the property of Sultan Mohammed was an evacuee property within the meaning of section 2(f) of the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 as the said person was an evacuee within the meaning of clause (d) of section 2 of the 1950 Act.

After perusing the single bench judgement, the bench said, “We find that the judge has observed that the state in its reply had categorically accepted that Sultan Mohammed had never visited Pakistan.” The Supreme Court also noted that the Single Judge had held that the property of Sultan Mohammed could not be declared as evacuee property and hence the action to declare his property as evacuee property was quashed.