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Writ Petition No. 610 of 1969, decided oil 6th November 1969.

S. 5 read with Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act (XXVIII of 1958), S. 8‑Claim verified under Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act, 1956‑Not an indefeasible right for payment of entire amount Scale of compensation fixed by Government for settling claims out of compensation pool in terms of S. 8 of Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958, held, not exceptionable.

It was contended that the petitioner's claim verified under the Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act, 1956 was to be paid in entirety and not at the rate fixed by Govern ment.

Held : The Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act, 1956 was only promulgated for the purposes of registration and verification of claims of displaced persons in respect of the properties left by them in India and the areas occupied by India. The Act did not at all provide for payment of verified claims or any part thereof. A displaced person who had his claim verified under that Act had no right to claim its payment because there did not exist any such provision in it. The order passed under that Act is only a proof of the value of the property a displaced person had abandoned in India and not that the same could in any way entitle that person to the payment of the amount so verified.

Since the claims were to be met from the compensation pool which was constituted of the evacuee property under the provisions of sections 3, 4 and 8 of the Displaced Persons 'compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958, if the verified (aims exceeded the value of the compensation pool, the claimants could not be paid the entire amount of their claims. The Central Government had the power to take steps for the disposal of the claims and was, therefore, competent to fix the scale which it had done. That being so, the petitioner cannot take rxreption to the scale so fixed.

S. A. Kirmani for Petitioner.

Mst. Azimunnisa Begum, petitioner herein, was a displaced person having migrated from Royapettah Madras, and submitted a claim under section 5 of the Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act III of 1956, in respect of the property which she abandoned in India.

The claim was verified for a sum of Rs. 2,46,372.00. She was issued a compensation book indicating Rs. 84,480.00 as deferred amount. The case of the petitioner is that she is entitled to the payment of the entire sum of Rs. 2,46,372.00. She has, therefore, filed this petition with the prayer that "the respondent directed to enforce the actual verification order by eliminat 11ig the slab system (deferred payments) and to reopen all such decided cases to whom substantial injury has monetarily been caused."

2. Learned counsel contends that once the claim was verified under the Registration of Claims (Displaced Persons) Act, 1956, it became an indefeasible right of the petitioner for the payment of the entire amount. The learned counsel, it appears, has not appreciated the precise purpose, extent and scope of the 1956‑Act which was only promulgated for the purposes of registration and verification of claims of displaced persons in respect of the properties left by them in India and the areas occupied by India. The act did not at all provide for payment verified claims or any part thereof. A displaced person who had his claim verified under that Act had no right to A claim its payment because there did not exist any such provision in it. The order passed under that Act is only a proof of the value of the property a displaced person had abandoned in India and not that the same could in any way entitle that person to the payment of the amount so verified. It was only on the promulgation of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958, that it was provided for the payment of compensation to claimants displaced persons for the losses suffered by them on account of expropriation by the Government of India of their rights in property in India or in any area occupied by India. A compensation pool in respect or alt evacue property which way acquired under section 3 of the Act and of the sale proceeds of any immovable evacuee property lying with the Custodian, etc., was constituted under section 4 of the Act for the payment of compensation to claimants. It was provided in section 8 of the Act that the Central Government may, with a view to having an effective utilization of the compensation pool, take such steps for the custody, management and disposal of the pool as it considered necessary. The Central Government, in exercise of this power, fixed the scale of compensation for settling claims of displaced persons out of compensation pool against the amounts verified under different Schedules to the Registration of Claims Rules, 1955, and it was published through a Press Note dated the 10th of November 1959. It was further stated by the Govern ment that they had strained all their resources and could not go beyond those scales which were based on the value of the total evacuee property available. It is thus abundantly clear that since the claims were to be met from the compensation pool which was constituted of the evacuee property, if the verified claims exceeded the value of the compensation pool, the claimants could not be paid the entire amount of their claims. The Central Government had the power to take steps for the disposal of the claims and was, therefore, competent to fix the scale which it had done. That being so, the petitioner cannot take exception to the scale so fixed. The petitioner's right to compensation of Rs. 84,480.00 out of the compensation pool being in accordance with the scale fixed by the Government, she cannot claim as of right anything beyond that.

3. The petition has no merit and is dismissed in limine.

A. E.Petition dismissed.

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