Waste Lands (Claims) Act, 1863

The Waste Lands (Claims) Act, 1863 sets up a special process for resolving disputes over "waste lands" that the government proposes to sell or otherwise dispose of. Its preamble describes it as providing for the speedy adjudication of claims to such land and objections to its sale, and Section 1 lets anyone claim ownership of, or object to the sale or disposition of, waste land before the government proceeds.

When a claim or objection is raised within the time stated in the sale advertisement - which must be at least three months (Section 1) - the district Collector investigates, calls for evidence from the claimant or objector, and issues an order admitting or rejecting the claim (Section 2). If the Collector considers the claim established, the sale is stopped (Section 4); if the claim is rejected, the claimant has one week (or longer, at the Collector's discretion) to give notice that they intend to contest the order, after which the matter goes up to a superior revenue authority and, if still unresolved, to a specially constituted court (Section 5).

Sections 6-13 establish a "Special Court" for each district with waste lands, made up of an odd number of at least three members including the district judge, to hear and decide these land claims as formal lawsuits, following the Code of Civil Procedure "so far as they can be" applied (Section 11). Once such a court is set up for a district, no other court can hear that type of claim (Section 8), there is no appeal or revision from its decisions (Section 14), though it can - and in matters of general legal importance must - refer questions of law to the High Court for an opinion (Section 15).

Section 18 sets a three-year limitation period, running from when the land was delivered to the purchaser or otherwise dealt with, for bringing a claim; a claimant who misses the original filing window can still be allowed to sue within this three-year period if they show good reason for the earlier delay (the provision following Section 18). Section 19 makes clear that a successful claimant does not get the land itself back once it has been sold, but only compensation equal to the sale price, and Section 21 makes any such compensation award final and binding, barring any future claim on the same grounds. Sections 22-23 also let the government award compensation on its own discretion even where a claim was never formally filed within the prescribed time.

This is a very old law from 1863; the extract notes it has already been repealed as it applies to the Islamabad Capital Territory (by a 1981 ordinance), and shows numerous other amendments over the decades, including the substitution of "Provincial Government" for earlier terms like "Local Government" and "Government." Given its age, whether it still governs a particular piece of land should be checked against current federal and provincial land laws.