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March 13, 2016

India: Lower house of Parliament Passes Bill to amend Enemy Property Act - new reports and resources


http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=134302

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Home Affairs
08-January-2016 16:15 IST

Enemy Property Ordinance, 2016 Promulgated

The President of India has promulgated the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2016 on January 07, 2016 to make amendments to the Enemy Property Act, 1968.

The amendments through the Ordinance include that once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death etc; that law of succession does not apply to enemy property; that there cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm and that the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

The above amendments to the Enemy Property Act, 1968 will plug the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and they do not revert back to the enemy subject or enemy firm.

The Enemy Property Act was enacted in the year 1968 by the Government of India, which provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian. The Central Government through the Custodian of Enemy Property for India is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country. In addition, there are also movable properties categorized as enemy properties.

To ensure that the enemy property continues to vest in the Custodian, appropriate amendments were brought in by way of an Ordinance in the Enemy Property Act, 1968 by the then Government in 2010.

This Ordinance, however lapsed on 6th September, 2010 and a bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 22, 2010. However, this bill was withdrawn and another bill with modified provisions was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 15th November, 2010. This bill was thereafter referred to the Standing Committee. However, the said bill could not be passed during the 15th term of the Lok Sabha and it lapsed.

In the wake of the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan. Under the Defence of India Rules framed under the Defence of India Act, the Government of India took over the properties and companies of such persons who had taken Pakistani nationality. These enemy properties were vested by the Central Government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.

After the 1965 war, India and Pakistan signed the Tashkent Declaration on 10.01.1966. The Tashkent Declaration inter alia included a clause, which said that the two countries would discuss the return of the property and assets taken over by either side in connection with the conflict. However, the Government of Pakistan disposed of all such properties in their country in the year 1971 itself.


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The Hindu
New Delhi, March 10, 2016

LS passes Bill to amend Enemy Property Act

PTI

Centre turns down Opposition demand to refer the Bill to Standing Committee.

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill to amend a 48-year-old law to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.

The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which amends the Enemy Property Act, 1968, was passed by voice vote amid the government’s assertion that the measure should not be seen from the prism of religion or caste.

A demand by the Opposition for sending it to the Standing Committee of Parliament was turned down.

Replying to a debate on the Bill, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “It does not pertain to Pakistan alone, but also to those Chinese who left India after the 1962 China-India War. Even their property comes under the ambit of this Bill.” In the wake of the India-Pakistan war of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan and under the Defence of India Rules framed under the Defence of India Act. The government of India took over the properties and companies of such persons who had taken Pakistani nationality. These enemy properties were vested by the Union government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.

The amendments include that once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death. The new Bill ensures that the law of succession does not apply to enemy property; that there cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm and that the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the Act. The amendments are aimed at plugging the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and do not revert to the enemy subject or firm.

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No court appeal, no succession law: How Bill keeps enemy property with Custodian
The Indian Express explains the changes made this week to the 1968 Enemy Property Act, intended to plug loopholes that have allowed courts to honour claims by heirs of people who left India in the wake of wars with China and Pakistan.

Written by Sagnik Chowdhury
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/no-court-appeal-no-succession-law-how-bill-keeps-enemy-property-with-custodian/

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16,000 'enemy properties' worth crores in India, several in city
TNN | Jan 14, 2016
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/16000-enemy-properties-worth-crores-in-India-several-in-city/articleshow/50582909.cms

other relevant material:

Jan 2016 Ordinance in the Gazette of India
https://tinyurl.com/j8n9wd5


Related but older material:

cpiml.org > Liberation > Year 2010 > Oct 10

Politics of the 'Enemy Property' Act

Zahid Khan

Can property inherited by Indian citizens from their ancestors or relatives who migrated to Pakistan at the time of Partition be designated as 'Enemy Property'? The Supreme Court said in 2005 that the "Answer is (an) emphatic No." The erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad had opted to go to Pakistan at the time of Partition; his son Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan who remained in India waged a 32-year legal battle to claim the properties worth crores of rupees inherited from his father, which the Government had confiscated under the Enemy Property Act 1968. This Act, enacted in the aftermath of the 1965 war, affects not just the property of the "Raja" Mahmudabad, but the 2,168 properties of ordinary Muslims in many states, inherited from those who renounced their Indian citizenship and migrated to Pakistan at the time of Partition. In 2005, the Supreme Court restored this property to Amir Mohammad Khan and settled the question by emphatically stating that the Enemy Property Act 1968 could not be said to apply to properties of Indian citizens: "The definition of enemy (under the Act – ed/-)... excludes citizens of India as an enemy.... Under the circumstances, the respondent, who was born in India and his Indian citizenship not being in question cannot by any stretch of imagination be held to be enemy or enemy subject ... Similarly...the property belonging to an Indian could not be termed an enemy property.”
Naturally, after this landmark verdict in the Mahmudabad case, others began seeking restoration of similar properties. Alarmingly, the UPA Government recently made a move to undermine and overrule the 2005 Supreme Court verdict, through an ordinance promulgated on July 2 2010 which stated that even courts were not entitled to alter the status of any property that was once declared 'enemy property’. Note that in Indian democracy, an ordinance is an executive tool to be used only in urgent situations when Parliament is not in session. Why, in this case, did the UPA Government suddenly resort to an ordinance when the monsoon session of Parliament was upcoming, and that too, not to address any urgent matter but in fact to overturn a matter settled decisively several years ago by the apex court?
In August, the Government then tabled the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill 2010 in Parliament to block all legal Indian heirs from going to court to reclaim properties that once belonged to those who left for Pakistan during Partition. However, in the wake of objections by Muslim MPs, the Government was forced to amend the Bill, permitting Indian-born legal heirs to claim such properties, on condition that they establish their status to the satisfaction of the government. Even the amended Bill, however, amounts to a restriction of the rights of Indian citizens – most of them Muslims. In the first place, the Bill stipulates that lower courts cannot be approached, and also that the Bill will have retrospective effect, which means that those who have won legal battles in Court would have to approach Court all over again. In particular, these changes will affect the rights of poor Muslims, who will be forced to bear the expense of legal battles in higher Courts, and, even if they have won such battles in the past, repeat the harassment, humiliation and expense of having to 'prove' their Indian citizenship yet again. Following fresh protests against the Bill, the Government eventually deferred the Bill to the next session of Parliament.
Predictably, the UPA Government's move to open the "Enemy Property" issue (long-settled by the apex Court) put wind in the sails of the BJP, which is demanding that the Bill remain on the lines of the July 2 ordnance, barring Indian Muslims from claiming inheriting any properties left behind by those who migrated to Pakistan after Partition. A law that identifies Pakistan as an ‘enemy nation’ in perpetuity and stigmatises Indian Muslims’ property as ‘enemy property,’ allowing endless scope for harassment of Muslims to prove their citizenship and patriotism – what better fodder could the BJP ask for? And it has been provided to them on a platter by the Congress!
It is worth recalling that international conventions do not allow for any country to be designated an ‘enemy’ country in peacetime, and regulations pertaining to ‘enemy property’ pertain only to times of actual war.
This is not the first time in independent India that Muslims have paid for opting to remain in the land of their birth. Soon after independence, the Evacuee Property Law which was in force from 1947-1956, was used to deprive Muslims of their businesses, shops, houses, land, inheritance and assets on a large scale, and sowed the seeds of alienation of Indian Muslims. With the deferment of the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill 2010, Indian Muslims have now got a temporary reprieve. If this Bill is eventually passed, it is bound to deepen the alienation of Muslims. BJP’s very politics rests on communalism and deliberate alienation of minorities – but this time the ‘Enemy Property’ issue has exposed the hollowness of Congress’ claims of being a defender of ‘secularism’ and minorities’ rights and dignity.