The Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan (FCCP) has held that a person who does not meet the eligibility criteria of a housing scheme cannot claim a legal, vested or enforceable right to allotment of a flat or house merely because his name was declared successful in a computerized ballot.
Lottery win does not create legal right to allotment for ineligible applicants: FCCP
ISLAMABAD, Oct 05 (APP):The Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan (FCCP) has held that a person who does not meet the eligibility criteria of a housing scheme cannot claim a legal, vested or enforceable right to allotment of a flat or house merely because his name was declared successful in a computerized ballot.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi gave the ruling while deciding cases concerning allotment of 2,100-square-foot high-rise flats in Hayatabad Phase-V, Peshawar, and dismissed the petitions and a criminal appeal with costs.
In its detailed written judgment, the court observed that the eligibility conditions set out in the housing scheme’s advertisement were fundamental and mandatory. A computerized ballot was merely a method of selection among applicants who already fulfilled the eligibility requirements. The success in the ballot could not convert an ineligible applicant into an eligible one.
The court noted that the petitioners were serving employees of the federal government at the time of the ballot and did not meet the eligibility requirements prescribed under the scheme. Their names being drawn in the ballot therefore had no legal effect. An administrative mistake, it held, could not confer a right that a person did not otherwise possess under the law or the scheme’s conditions.
The FCCP further held that a public authority was not required to perpetuate an illegality merely because the mistake had been committed by its own officials. Once such an erroneous allotment was discovered, it was the authority’s legal duty to rectify it.
Allowing ineligible persons to retain allotments in a scheme involving limited public resources merely because of an administrative error would be unfair to applicants who fulfilled the prescribed conditions, the court observed.
The court said cancellation of the petitioners’ allotments did not amount to deprivation of any vested or accrued legal right, but constituted a correction of an administrative error.
It noted that the authorities had reconsidered the matter, provided the petitioners an opportunity of personal hearing and, after obtaining the opinion of the Advocate General, a special committee unanimously decided on December 14, 2021 to cancel the allotments.
The court held that the requirements of natural justice had been fulfilled, observing that providing a party an opportunity of hearing did not mean that its explanation had to be accepted.
The judgment further clarified that no legitimate expectation could arise from an administrative error contrary to law, nor could estoppel prevent a public authority from correcting such an error.
The FCCP also dismissed the criminal appeal relating to contempt of court, holding that an earlier judgment of the Peshawar High Court had not declared the petitioners eligible under the scheme. Since the authorities had reconsidered the matter in light of the High Court order and cancelled the allotments after providing an opportunity of hearing, there was no element of willful disobedience.
The finding no legal or procedural defect in the authorities’ action, the FCCP declined to interfere with the Peshawar High Court judgment and dismissed all the petitions and the criminal appeal with costs.
