Right of Pre-emption (Haq-e-Shufa) (Part 3)

You send that registered notice with acknowledgment due, either it comes back refused, or after delivery the acknowledgment-due card comes to you, attach a copy of it. Now, of course, postal service exists everywhere, but when it didn't, only registered post would go, and there was no acknowledgment-due facility, it took two weeks just for the letter to get there and back, and registered post alone would suffice, but now, since it exists, you need to send that notice by post, through the post office, registered with acknowledgment due, the reason being that this whole process runs on record-keeping. Why not courier? Because courier isn't record-based. It's marked against the postman when it goes to his area, the postman is a permanent employee, a government employee, he goes, and whatever happens with it he reports back, he can even be called as a witness in court, the postman, saying, yes, sir, I took this registered letter, I went, I met such-and-such person, he accepted it, or I met such-and-such person, he refused it. Attach all these papers, when you file the suit, before serving notice the court has two options: either it will immediately tell you 1. deposit one-third of the sale consideration. If you've shown confirmed knowledge in your suit that this person bought this property for two lakh, three lakh, four lakh, five lakh, whatever the amount, the court will say deposit one-third of it. Now when the court says deposit one-third, here the court has discretion to reduce or increase the deadline, but the law has put shackles even on this discretion, that the court will order the deposit of the sale consideration within thirty days, it won't give more than thirty days, at most thirty days, beyond that the court isn't even given the authority, within thirty days you must deposit the sale consideration. Now a problem arises here, you say, sir, I don't even know the sale price, I've only learned that he bought it, the sale deed doesn't state the amount, this used to happen at one time, or it happened through direct mutation, or the sale deed isn't accessible to us, no price was set on the mutation, I don't know, then the court will determine a probable price, what's the price of an acre in this area, but this whole process must happen within thirty days, you won't get more than thirty days, even with an estimated price set, you'll still have to deposit one-third. Now here some complications arise, what are they? I told you at the start that 80 percent of these suits are filed purely to harass someone. Now what's the point of depositing one-third of the sale price as the sale consideration? 1. The pre-emptor is serious, he genuinely wants to buy this land. 2. If there's delay from the buyer's side, he'll bear the consequences too, if you've written in the plaint that if the proceedings are delayed without cause, I should also be given costs. Now what happens with the 80 percent filed purely to harass, for example say five acres of land was sold, now that five acres was worth ninety lakh, now he deposited thirty lakh rupees, now the buyer gets worried, I bought this property, I bought it openly, the whole village knows, before buying I went back and forth ten times, did this, did that, went through this whole process, but he's now filed pre-emption, he's also going around to that guy's house, Chaudhry Sahib, what have you done, I told you about this, you said you didn't know, or I only bought this land after asking you, or was it within everyone's knowledge. Now Chaudhry Sahib feels satisfied that, well, I've harassed him plenty, now he tells his lawyer, lawyer sahib, somehow arrange for me to get my money out without anyone finding out. Now he gets the money withdrawn, it's not usually possible for no one to find out, but some cases happen where no one finds out, he gets it withdrawn. Now, over time, the case proceeds, the case is going in his favour, suddenly news comes, no, sir, Chaudhry sahib, you've won the case. Now Chaudhry sahib comes to his senses, that after five years I'm about to win the case, five years ago the property worth ninety lakh is now worth two crore ninety lakh. He rushes, in a hurry, in a scramble, deposits thirty lakh rupees. Depositing thirty lakh rupees, will he get caught or not, he gets it deposited, the suit gets decreed, after the decree his sale deed is cancelled, he gets everything, when the buyer goes to withdraw the money he finds out this money was deposited on this date, he says the case has been running for five years, how did the money get deposited a year ago... he investigates and finds out, sir, the money was withdrawn earlier, and when the case finally neared its conclusion, near winning, he deposited it again. He'll immediately go to court, saying, sir, he had withdrawn the sale consideration, the record will be summoned from the office, a report will be requested, and once it's established that this money was withdrawn, whether or not it was redeposited, if the money was withdrawn, everything will be reversed. That property will go back to the same buyer who originally bought it. The sale consideration must remain intact until the final judgment, final judgment meaning the judgment that has been given becomes final, takes final shape, such that no appeal, no revision, no writ can be filed against it, nothing can be done against it anymore.