Woman appointed lumberdar as LHC sets aside male appointment

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has overturned the appointment of a man as permanent lumberdar of a village in Lodhran district and ruled that a woman candidate is entitled to the office, finding that the denial of marks to her under the head of community was arbitrary, contradictory and without legal basis.

Justice Raheel Kamran issued the ruling on a petition filed by Kalsoom Akhtar against the Member Board of Revenue and others.

According to the case details, the post became vacant after the death of Nawab Din, the petitioner’s father, who had remained the permanent lumberdar of the village until his death in September 2020. Kalsoom Akhtar, who had also been serving as Sarbarah lumberdar since 2002, applied for the post along with other candidates.

The petitioner argued that she had been given zero marks in the community category on the assumption that she belonged to a third-tier sub-caste within the Gujjar community, while the successful candidate belonged to the majority community of the village.

On the other hand, counsel for respondent Muhammad Azam, who had been appointed lumberdar, defended the impugned orders and maintained that they had been passed in accordance with the law after consideration of the comparative merits of the candidates. The lawyer argued that his client was highly qualified, belonged to the village’s majority community and met all essential requirements for the appointment.

In his judgement, Justice Kamran observed that all major contestants belonged to the Gujjar community and said there was no lawful justification for splitting the tribe into sub-classifications to deny the petitioner marks. He held that once it was admitted on record that the petitioner belonged to the Gujjar community and that Gujjars formed the majority population of the village, awarding her no marks under the community head amounted to an artificial and technical reading of the criteria.

The judge termed the district collector’s reasoning intrinsically self-defeating, noting that if the petitioner’s lineage were to be treated as outside the dominant community, the same reasoning would also raise questions about the earlier appointment of her father as permanent lumberdar.

The court further noted that the petitioner was not unfamiliar with village administration, having served as Sarbarah lumberdar for years and having assisted her late father in official work.

Constitutional principles highlighted

Justice Kamran observed that no law barred a woman from holding the office of lumberdar and said capable women must be assessed on the same objective basis as male candidates.

Allowing the petition, the court declared Kalsoom Akhtar entitled to be appointed as permanent lumberdar of Chak No.360/W.B, Tehsil Dunyapur, district Lodhran. The judge directed the relevant revenue authorities to issue the required notification within 30 days.

The judgement also set aside the order of the Member (Consolidation), Board of Revenue, Punjab, as well as the order of the deputy commissioner/district collector, Lodhran, through which Muhammad Azam had been appointed as permanent lumberdar.

Before concluding the judgement, Justice Kamran said the court could not ignore the contemporary constitutional ethos of equality, inclusion and fair participation of women in public life. He observed that rural governance and revenue administration benefit when capable women are allowed to take part in institutional roles that have historically been dominated by men.

The judge further declared that any latent bias, whether direct or indirect, that undermines a woman’s candidature for reasons unrelated to merit could not be tolerated.