On 15-02-2024, Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, ASC, successfully represented an appellant before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He had appealed from a judgment of a division bench of the Lahore High Court whereby the appellant’s intra-court appeal had been dismissed as not being maintainable. Originally, the appellant had challenged an order of the Punjab Board of Revenue refusing to return his land situated on main G.T. Road in Jhelum City that had been acquired by the Post War Reconstruction Fund (predecessor of the Fauji Foundation) to establish textile mills but which was no longer needed for the said purpose and was being auctioned by the government.
The Division Bench of the High Court was of the opinion that the appellant had a right of appeal under the Land Acquisition Act, 1984, as well as the remedy of review under S. 8 of the Board of Revenue Act, 1958, therefore, the intra-court appeal was not maintainable in view of S. 3 of the Law Reforms Ordinance, 1972. That judgment is reported at 2024 CLC 114 Lahore and can also be downloaded from the Lahore High Court website by clicking here.
Agreeing with Imran’s submissions, the Supreme Court took the opposite view and held that the said remedies of appeal and review were not applicable to the appellant’s case. Therefore, his intra-court appeal was maintainable before a Division Bench of the High Court. The Supreme Court remitted the case to the Division Bench for decision on merits. The title of the case is Rehm Dad v. Province of Punjab through its Chief Secretary, Lahore and others. The Judgment is reported at PLD 2024 SC 499 and 2024 SCP 93. It can also be downloaded from the Supreme Court website by clicking here.