LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly has amended Land Revenue Act 1967 and Partition of Immovable Property Act 2012 which will come into force at once.
Section 24 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1967 provides for mode of service of summons issued by a revenue officer and the mode includes the person to whom the summons is addressed, his authorized agent or an adult male member of his family. The relevant amendment aims at allowing the summons to be served on any adult member of the family. An amendment for inclusion of electronic means as valid modes of serving the summons has also been proposed to make use of electronic devices available or made available in future. Further, section 141 of the act has been proposed to be amended so that the revenue officer is bound to decide the question regarding title of the property himself instead of requiring a party to file civil suit. These changes will expedite disposal of partition cases by the Revenue Officers.
Subsection (3) of section 9 of the Punjab Partition of Immovable Property Act 2012 provides for appointment of a referee for partition of the joint property on the request of one of the co-owners in suit for partition of an immovable property. The provision has been omitted so as to ensure that the referee may only be appointed in event of consent of all the co-owners. This will ensure early disposal of partition cases.
The assembly also amended three other acts and ordinance.