“The Land Reforms Act 1977”, was promulgated under the Scheme of Land Reforms and idea was to cut the size of individuals holdings to the prescribe limits on the basis of entries in the revenue record on the date of commencement of the said Act and the excesses area was to be resumed in favour of land commissioner in order to utilize the surrender land under Section 15 to the landless tenants or persons owning less than 12 acre land.

 “The Land Reforms Act 1977”, was promulgated under the Scheme of Land Reforms and idea was to cut the size of individuals holdings to the prescribe limits on the basis of entries in the revenue record on the date of commencement of the said Act and the excesses area was to be resumed in favour of land commissioner in order to utilize the surrender land under Section 15 to the landless tenants or persons owning less than 12 acre land. There cannot be any other better use of this property then by allotting the same to the poor landless tillers of the soil so that they may earn their livelihood out of it and feed and bring up poor and downtrodden children to make them respectable citizen of the society. According to the injunction of the Holy Quran, ALLAH Almighty has created every human being respectable on account of his being human. It is further ordered in the Holy Quran at so many places that the needy persons have a right in the property of believers and can get it as of right.

Perusal of section 15 of “The Act” ibid provides two types of procedures for allotment/disposal of surrender land. Firstly; under sub rules (1) & (2) that the said surrender land can be granted free of charge to the tenants who are shown in the revenue record to be in cultivating possession of it during kharif 1977 and Rabi 197576 and if a tenant who is entitled to grant of land under sub section (1) already owned land, he shall be granted only so much land which together with the land already owned by him does not exceeds 12 acres. Secondly; if the land was not granted under sub sections (1) & (2), it can be granted to other landless tenants or persons owning less then 12 acres land as provided in sub section (3) of Section 15. Section 16 provides that a grantee or his heirs shall not alienate by sale, gift, mortgage or otherwise the land or any portion thereof during the period of 20 years from the date of grant, they shall maintain the land in proper state of cultivation, the whole of the land shall be used for the sole purpose of agricultural and shall not sublet the land. The Punjab Government framed rules with regard to procedure for grant of land vide notification No.LH-II-407-78-550LC, dated 06th February, 1978 (Punjab Gazette, 6.12.1978) and that rules called the Punjab Land Reforms (Procedure for grant of Land) Rules, 1978 (herein after referred to as „Rules 1978‟). In Chapter II, Rule No.3 describes eligibility for grant and scale of area to be granted. Rule 4 provides procedure with regard to application for grant of land under sub sections (1) & (2) of Section 15 of the Act ibid. Rule 5 describes the procedure upon receiving of application for grant of land under sub section 1 & 2 of Section 15 of the Act ibid.

Writ Petition No. 519 of 2011. Niaz Muhammad & 03 others. Versus Muhammad Riaz & 09 others.

Date of hearing: 10-03-2022