Settlement Commissioners (Validation of Orders) Act, 1972

This is a short, narrowly targeted curative law rather than a general statute — it exists solely to retroactively validate certain orders that had been declared invalid. The background is the resettlement of displaced persons after Partition: under the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1958, the Chief Settlement Commissioner had powers under Section 20(2) of that Act to delegate his authority to other Settlement Commissioners, who could then act under Section 21(1) to deal with compensation and property claims of displaced persons.

Section 2 is the operative provision: it declares that any order made by a Settlement Commissioner acting under such delegated powers is deemed to have always been validly made — 'notwithstanding' anything in the 1958 Act or in any court decree or order that might otherwise have found such orders defective. This effectively overrides court rulings that had cast doubt on the validity of these Settlement Commissioners' decisions, protecting the resulting property allotments or compensation decisions from being reopened on that technical ground.

Section 1 makes the Act apply throughout Pakistan and, unusually, gives it retrospective effect back to 26 March 1958 — meaning it covers essentially the entire period the 1958 Act had been in force. Section 3 originally contained a further provision but was later omitted by a 1981 revision ordinance, leaving only the core validation clause in force.

Given both its narrow, technical purpose and its age (1972, addressing decisions going back to 1958), this Act is primarily of interest for resolving historical property-title disputes tied to Partition-era resettlement, and anyone relying on it for a live case should confirm the current text and any further amendments.