Assignment On Molvi tameezudin case

Submitted toMiss sumbal islam ch

Submitted byAwais Mazhar Roll no 34Asim Fraz Roll no 31Azhar Iqbal Roll no 18Zaheer Abbas Roll no 19Hafiz Abdul Samad Roll no 26LLB HONS 7TH SEMESTERPunjab University Law College Lahore

Moulvi Tammizuddin Khans Case

Early Background of Moulvi Tammizuddin:

Maulvi Tammizuddin was born in 1889 in the village of Farid Pur. He got his early education at his home. For higher education he travelled to Bihar, Calcutta and then returned to Farid Pur.It start his professional career as a lawyer. He passed his entrance exam in 1906. He took admission at Victoria College in Bihar and passed his exams in arts. Then he got education at Scottish Churches College and Presidency College Calcutta. After passing Honors in English in 1911, he took admission for M.A in Presidency College and for Law at Rippon College, simultaneously. He passed both the exams in 1913 and 1914 respectively. Having close observation of the rural life and its problems, Maulvi Tammizuddin stepped in the field of politics when anti-Bengal Partition Movement was on its peak. In Farid Pur Bar he was an ardent supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity. So he joined Indian National Congress in 1921. During Khilafat Movement, he took part in boycotting the British Courts and went to the extent of getting his brother out of a British school. Maulvi Tammizuddin was arrested for his political activities and sent to the Farid Pur jail and then shifted to Central Jail Dhaka where he began reading and understanding Holy Quran. In 1923, he was released from the jail. These sufferings had great impact on the personality of Maulvi Tammizuddin. Later, when British government wanted to give him the title of Khan Bahadur, he simply refused to accept it. Consequently his practice was banned and due to the financial constraints, he moved to Calcutta along with his family. There he earned his livelihood as an ordinary cloth merchant.

He was deeply concerned at Shuddhi Movement, which had started to convert Muslims to Hinduism. He decided to sever his links with Congress. Earlier, he contested elections from Farid Pur for the Municipal seat. At that time he was secretary of the Congress Party for Farid Pur but Hindus elected a Hindu leader against him. It exposed the Hindus bias against the Muslim community. He left Congress in 1926. In 1937 elections, he contested on the Muslim League ticket and convincingly defeated the Congress candidate HamayunKabir. From 1937 to 1947, he served as Minister of Health, Agriculture, Industries, and Education in Bengal. When Pakistan came into being, he was elected as Vice President of the Constituent Assembly of the Pakistan. After the death of the Quaid in 1948, he became the President of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Unfortunately in 1954, Governor General Ghulam Muhammad dissolved the Constituent Assembly.

The Case:

In 1954, the then Governor General of Pakistan, Ghulam Muhammad dissolved the constituent assembly of Pakistan and after that a new cabinet of ministers was appointed to carry out the functions of the Government. Moulvi Tammizuddin was also among the dismissed persons. SO he decided to challenge the act of Governor General in Chief Court of Sindh. In his complaint, he prayed for Writ of Mandamus against the Governor General for not interfering in the functions of Constituent Assembly and Writ of Quo Warranto against the newly appointed cabinet to stop them from working.

Writ of Mandamus:

Mandamus is sought for direction to the subordinate court/tribunal or government officer to perform mandatory duties correctly. Writ of mandamus is most popular writ, which is issued against the arbitrary/illegal acts of government officials including police officers, municipal bodies etc. This writ is given to a lower-level court or a government officer to mandate that proper laws are followed. Mandamus might be given if an official is not using his position appropriately or if a court is not following the laws of the state or country. This writ (also called the writ of mandate) ensures that the government and the individuals in charge are performing their functions properly.

Writ of Quo Warranto:

The writ of quo warranto enables enquiry into the legality of the claim which a person asserts, to an office or franchise and to oust him from such position if he is a usurper. The holder of the office has to show to the court under what authority he holds the office. If a person claims that he has the power of a public office without any legality behind it, he is issued a quo warranto. After the writ has been given, the person must show by what authority he has asserted his claim. It isIssued when

(a) The office is of public and of a substantive nature;(b) Created by statute or by the Constitution itself, (c) The respondent has asserted his claim to the office.

Verdict of the Sindh Court:

Chief Court of Sindh granted him both these writs in favour of Moulvi Tammizuddin and against Governor General and his newly appointed cabinet. As this decision was against the Government, so they challenged the decision of Chief Court of Sindh in the Apex court, which was Federal Court of Pakistan at that time.

Appeal in Federal Court:

An appeal on Sindh courts opinion was filed by the government in Federal Court Rawalpindi. The government was represented by Sir Edward Diplock and advised by Sir Ivor Jennings. Moulvi Tammizuddin Khan was represented by I.I ChundrigarhFederal court as headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Munir.

Verdict:

With the majority of Four to one, federal court gave its verdict in favour of the Governor General and the ruling of previous court i.e. Chief Court of Sindh was made null and void. Federal court stayed away from the real issue of constitutionality of the Governor Generals power to dissolve the constituent assembly. Instead, it ruled over a technical point regarding the jurisdiction of the Chief court of Sindh explaining that Sindh court had no jurisdiction to grant writ of Mandamus and Quo Warranto to the affected party i.e. Moulvi Tammizuddin Khan. It reversed the judgment of Sindh court on grounds that Section 223A of the Government of India Act, 1935 as adapted in Pakistan by virtue of which Sindh Court issued writ in favour of Tammizuddin Khan was not yet a law because it had not received the assent of Governor General. Since section 223A of the act had not received such assent, it was not a law and therefore the Sindh Court had no power to issue the writs. Since the decision of the majority of the Federal Court was based on invalidity of Section 223A of the Government of India Act 1935 for which assent of the Governor General was necessary, therefore, the court did not go into the other issues.

Dissenting Opinion of Justice A.R. Cornelius:

JusticeA. R. Corneliuswas the sole dissenting judge in the landmark judgment handed down by the Supreme Court in the Maulvi Tamizuddin case. That judgment altered the course of politics in Pakistan forever and sealed the fate of democracy.Justice A.R. Cornelius wrote a strong dissenting opinion stating that there was no obligation that all laws made by the Constituent Assembly of a constitutional nature required the assent of Governor General for their validity and operations.

Conclusion:

To conclude the topic, we can say that the Decision of the Federal Court and its implications were so severe that it nullified the seven years worth of legislation of the constituent assembly in a single sweep of pen for almost as many as forty six acts of the statute became null and void thus creating a legal vacuum.