Civil Appeal No 2409 of 1969
From the Judgment and order dated the 19th July 1968 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No 1994 of 1964
K Rajendra Chowdhary and Mrs Surendra Krishnan for the Appellant
I N Sinha Sol
General Girish Chandra for Respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by SHINGHAL J
This appeal by certificate is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh dated July 19 1968
It is not in dispute that appellant Mohd Faisuddin Khan is 780 a citizen of India and was declared an evacuee by an order of the Deputy Custodian of Evacuee Property Hyderabad dated September 18 1951
His property consisting of a building and 350 acres of land was declared to be evacuee property
The Custodian of Evacuee Property issued a notice to the appellant on April S 1961 calling upon him to surrender possession of the property
That was followed by a notification dated January 20 1962 of the Central Government under section 12 of the  hereinafter referred to as the Act by which that government acquired all properties which had been declared to be evacuee properties for a purpose connected with the relief and rehailitation of displaced persons including payment of compensation
The appellant challenged the aforesaid notification as unconstitutional and applied for writ of certiorarai on a proper construction of ss12 and 15 of the Act
In its impugned judgment the High Court has taken the view that on publication of the notification under section 121 of the Act the right title and interest of the evacuee was extinguished in the evacuee property and it vested absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumbrances
That in the view of the High Court was unconditional and was not made to depend upon the fixation or payment of compensation under section 13 notwithstanding the fact that the principles for payment of compensation had not been agreed upon between the Governments of India and Pakistan and had not therefore been fixed
It has also been held that the words or otherwise in article 315 b iii of the Constitution are sufficiently wide and the protection of the article extends to the relevant provisions of the Act so that there could be no successful challenge on the basis of article 312
The evacuee feels aggrieved and has filed the present appeal
It has been argued by counsel for the appellant that the view taken by the High Court is not correct and that acquisition of the appellant s property under section 12 of the Act was not immune from challenge under article 315 b iii of the Constitution because no compensation had been
paid or was proposed to be paid for the acquired property
It will be recalled that a notification was issued by the Central Government under section 12 of the Act to acquire the property of the appellant for rehabilitation of displaced persons
That notification was published in the gazette and by virtue of sub section
2 of that section the right title and interest of the appellant in that property which was admittedly evacuee property was extinguished and the property vested absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumbrances
 Section 13 of the Act provides for the payment of compensation for such acquisition in accordance with such principles and in such manner as may be agreed upon between the Governments of India and Pakistan
 Section 14 of the Act goes further and provides for the constitution of a compensation pool
The appellant has however been deprived of the benefit of these provisions because it is the admitted case of the parties that the agreement envisaged by section 12 has not been arrived at so far between the two 781 Governments
Even so that
would not in our opinion justify the argument of counsel for the appellant that clause 2 of article 31 of the Constitution would become applicable for clause 5 b iii of that article expressly provides as follows 5 Nothing in clause 2 shall affect        b the provisions of any law which the State may here after make       iii in pursuance of any agreement entered into between the Government of the Dominion of India or the Government of India and the Government of any other country or otherwise with respect to property declared by law to be evacuee property Emphasis added
It would thus appear that clause 2 of article 31 will not avail the appellant because there is an express provision in clause 5 that it shall not affect the provisions of any law which the State Government may make either in pursuance of an agreement with the Government of any other country or otherwise
So even in the absence of an agreement with the Government of Pakistan it was permissible for the State to make the Act and its provisions would not be affected by anything contained in clause 2 of article 31 of the Constitution
It would follow that there is nothing wrong with the view that compensation would have been payable to the appellant under sec
13 of the Act in accordance with such Principles and in such manner as might have been agreed upon between the Governments of India and Pakistan but not otherwise
The appellant is therefore not entitled to claim such compensation in the absence of the agreement and there is nothing wrong with the conclusion arrived at by the High Court in the impugned judgment
The counsel for the appellant tried to argue that the evacuee property in question could not have vested in the Central Government until compensation for its acquisition had been determined and paid
The argument is however quite futile in face of the clear provision of sub section 2 of section 12 of the Act that on the publication of the notification under sub section 1 the right title and interest of the evacuee shall be extinguished in the evacuee property and it shall vest absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumbrances
 There is thus no force in this appeal and it is dismissed but in the circumstances of the case without any order as to the costs
VPS Appeal dismissed


Summary:
When a notification is published under section 121 of the  under section 122 the right title and interest of the evacuee in the evacuee property is extinguished and the property vests absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumbrances
Section 13 of the Act provides for the payment of compensation for such acquisition in accordance with the principles agreed upon between the Government of India and Pakistan
No such principles of compensation had however been agreed upon between the two Governments
The appellant was declared an evacuee and his property as evacuee property
When the notification under section 12 was issued he challenged it but the High Court dismissed his writ petition holding that the vesting in the Central Government was unconditional and did not depend upon the fixation or payment of compensation under section 13
Dismissing the appeal to this Court  HELD 1 In the face of the clear provision in section 122 it could not be contended that the evacuee property did not vest in the Central Government until compensation for its acquisition had been determined and paid
781F 2 The appellant could not rely on article 312 because article 315 expressly provides that it shall not affect the provisions of any law which the State may make either in pursuance of an agreement with the Government of any other country or otherwise
So even in the absence of an agreement with the Government of Pakistan it is permissible for the State to make the Act and its provisions would not be affected by anything contained in article 312
781CD 3 Under section 13 compensation would have been payable to the appellant in accordance with any principles agreed upon between the Government of India and Pakistan
Therefore in the absence of such an agreement the appellant would not be entitled to claim any compensation
781 E