Public Forum: Enemy Property @ 1 lakh crores

Reference and Background 
Center The Government will soon present its final full budget of this tenure and before this, it has estimated that in the country's existing enemy properties, the survey has been done, the earnings in the market can be about Rs. 1 lakh crores. is. 

What is the enemy property? 
In 1947, the partition of the country, China in 1962, 1965 and 1971, during the war against Pakistan or after the departure of Pakistan or the people who went to Pakistan or China, the Indian government considers the Indian government an enemy and their property is an enemy property.  

• The people and companies who have taken citizenship, other than Pakistan, China, are also considered property assets.
• The Government of India recruits the custodian or guardian (custodian) for the care of such properties.
• The Indian Government had enforced the Enemy Property Act in 1968, under which the facility of keeping enemy property in custodian was provided
• The Central Government has constituted the Custodian of Anime Property Department, which has the right to acquire enemy properties.
• Under this, land, houses, gold, jewelery, shares of companies and any other property of the enemy nation can be taken into possession.
• During the First and Second World War, the United States and Britain took control of the German citizens' property on this basis.

(Team Vision Input)

The auction of 9411 properties will meet Rs. 1 lakh crores. There are 
approximately 16,000 properties coming under the purview of enemy property across the country, out of which 9411 have so far been declared as enemy property. Their approximate cost is approximately Rs 1 lakh crore. Now the government is preparing to auction the enemy properties.

In fact, through the amendment to the Enemy Property Act, there will be no scope for any claim on such properties. The bill provides that the property which has been declared an enemy property, such property will not be able to transfer those properties settled in Pakistan (which were entitled before leaving the country) or their heirs.

Where are the enemy assets?

• 6,289 enemy properties have been surveyed and the remaining 2,991 properties are being surveyed. All these 9,280 properties belong to the people who go to Pakistan. 
• Among these, 4,991 properties are in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal has 2,735 and there are 487 properties in the capital. Together with them, there are 263 such properties in Goa.
• Apart from these, 126 properties belong to people who have taken citizenship of China. Among these, 57 enemy properties are in Meghalaya, 29 in West Bengal and 7 such properties in Assam. 
• Such assets, which have no settlement, will be expedited promptly for bidding.
• Estimated value of these enemy properties is more than Rs. 1,00,000 crores and the nodal officers have been deployed to identify and assess their value on behalf of the State Governments.

It is notable that such properties related to Indians in Pakistan and China have already been sold by making such a law. After the war of 1965, India and Pakistan signed the Tashkent Declaration on January 10, 1966. According to a section included in this announcement, the two countries had agreed to discuss the return of property and assets captured by each other in the context of war. But the Pakistan government itself in 1971 disposed of all such properties in their own country.

(Team Vision Input)

Following long discussions in the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017  Parliament and the Expert Committee, the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017 came into existence last year. It is notable that in the absence of political consensus, the ordinance was issued six times before amendment in this law about 50 years old. This amended law replaced the Enemy Property (Protection and Registration) Act, 1968.

The definition of the term 'enemy' was changed
in 1968 after the war in Pakistan, in 1968 the Enemy Property (Protection and Registration) Act was passed. Now in this amended law the definition of 'enemy' has been changed. Indian nationals were not included in the definition of enemy in 1968, but now Indian citizens have also been included in this definition. In such a case, if an Indian citizen has settled in Pakistan many years ago, the heirs of the property of those families will not be considered as the citizens and their property will be confiscated considering them as enemy property.

(Team Vision Input)

• If an enemy property is contained in the custodian, then it will remain without the enemy, enemy or enemy firm considering it. 
• Even if it is postponed as an enemy property due to reasons such as death, it will remain in the custody of the custodian. 
• The law of inheritance will not apply to enemy property. 
• Can not transfer any property contained in custodian by enemy or enemy or enemy firm.
• The custodian enemy will protect the property until it is settled according to the provisions of the Act.

Major provisions of the Act In
this law, provisions have been made to prevent succession claims on property left by people who fled Pakistan and China after the war. Since India has fought with Pakistan and China, in this case, whatever Indian citizens have left the country and settled in these countries, their or their heirs will not be considered as any authority on the ancestral property situated in India.

• After the amendment, no action or proceeding will be entertained in relation to any action taken by the Central Government or the custodian in case of any enemy property.
• If no one succes to enemy property owner, if he returns to India then he will have no claim on this property. 
• Once upon the right of the custodian, the successor will have no rights on the enemy property.
• Even if the enemy of the enemy becomes an Indian or an enemy becomes a citizen of any other country by changing its citizenship, the enemy property will remain with the custodian.
• According to the law, the enemy property will be returned to the property owner only when he will send an application to the government and the property will not be found to be enemy property.
• In the amended law, the custodian will also have the right to sell the enemy property, whereas in the previous law there was a provision to sell only if it was necessary to preserve or maintain the property.
• In the previous law, there was a provision that the income from the enemy property could be used by the heirs of the enemy (if they were citizens of India), while this provision has been withdrawn in the new law.
• Whatever is mentioned in the Enemy Property Revised Law being effective from the previous date, there will be no adverse effect.
• Under this amended law, the sale of enemy property so far has been considered illegal. If an Indian citizen has purchased or developed an enemy property then it can be legally withdrawn.
• Through this law, the right to hear any dispute related to enemy property has been taken from civil courts and other departments.
• There is no provision of any Tribunal or any such alternative judicial, where the disputes related to it can be heard.
• Such cases can only be heard in the High Courts or the Supreme Court.
• Any person disagreeing with any order of the Central Government can appeal to the High Courts in relation to any question or method arising out of such order within 60 days of the date of the notice or receipt of the order. 

Why the change was needed? 
Enemy property law was made in 1968, i.e. 6 years of war with China and 3 years after the war with Pakistan. After the law was created, people who migrated to China or Pakistan from India were treated as citizens of 'enemy country' and the government got the right to seize their property and appoint a custodian. 

Most of the issues related to these properties belong to those people who settled in Pakistan during partition or after that. The heirs of many such families presented a claim on their family property located in India. There are many such families where the chief went to Pakistan, but his wife and children remained in India. Such people in their claims say that being an Indian citizen, they have basic rights on parental property. 

The King came in favor of Mahmudabad The Supreme Court's decision 
The biggest loss of this law has happened to the King's family of Mahmudabad. Mahmudabad is a large tehsil and old principality of Sitapur district near Lucknow. There are 936 properties in King Mahmudabad, Lucknow, Sitapur and Nainital, which have been declared enemy assets. King Amir Ahmad Khan of Mahmudabad went to Pakistan in 1957, but his wife Rani Kaniz Abid stayed here with his son. Amir Ahmad Khan's son says that since he and his mother have always been an Indian citizen, their ancestral property should not be treated as enemy property. But in 1968 when the enemy property became a property, all the properties of the king were also declared 'enemy property'. 

Then the king's son Mohammed Amir Mohammad Khan took refuge in the court. After the death of his father in 1973, he became his heirs under the Awadh Real Estate Act, 1869 and sought his right over those properties. After a lengthy trial in 2005, King Mahmudabad succeeded in removing the word "enemy" from his and other properties in the Supreme Court, after which he got ownership of his properties in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. 

But after the introduction of this new law, the ownership of the property of the billion rupees located in Lucknow, Sitapur and Nainital has become the government, because after the implementation of the Enemy Property Amendment Act, 2016 and after the new definition of the enemy citizen The ownership rights of Indian citizens have been exhausted on such properties received in them.

(Team Vision Input)

After this decision of the Supreme Court, the number of such cases increased in the courts and many heirs of those who went to Pakistan started reaching the courts, and citing this decision, demanding rights over those properties which should be declared enemy property. Had missed But on becoming a law, the proprietary rights of enemy property in many places, including Lucknow, Mumbai and Hyderabad, have now been received by the custodian, the Indian government.

The problem may also be that
the heirs of the king of Mehmedabad, and the heirs of Nawab of Bhopal, were sold to many people and they sold it to other people. The ownership of such properties declared as an enemy property has changed many times. With the aforementioned provisions of the new law, those who currently possess proprietary rights on this type of property are feeling cheated. If the custodian takes possession of his property as an enemy property, then only lakhs of such people in these two cities can be affected, which is living on such properties for decades. It includes many residential complexes, commercial establishments, hotels and municipal lands, and most of them can take refuge in court to protect their interests.

(Team Vision Input)

Conclusion: The statistics issued by the Office of the Custodian of Anime Property in 2016 reveal that there are approximately 16,000 enemy properties in the country, which cost thousands of rupees. In many big cities, many buildings and lands fall under the category of enemy property. The Government believes that any government should not allow its enemy nation or its citizens to own property or to have business interests. The rights of enemy property should be with the government, not the successors of the citizens of the enemy countries. This type of law is already in force in many other countries of the world including Pakistan and China. This law of our country applies not only to the property of the people who went to Pakistan but also to the property of people who went to China after the war of 1962, and there is no violation of human rights or the natural principles of justice from anywhere.