Evacuee and/or Enemy property

By an Act of 1950 any person who, for fear of disturbances, had left for a place outside India, or become a resident of Pakistan was an “evacuee". And “evacuee property" was of an evacuee (held in any capacity), as also any property obtained from an evacuee. Such evacuee property was deemed to have been vested in the Custodian for the State.

 The evacuee property legislation was actually a predecessor of the current Enemy Property Act. The office of the Custodian of Evacuee Property appropriated buildings and land worth crores of rupees while also using the properties to provide shelter to those who moved to India after partition, as the evacuee property law allowed a migrant’s family to reclaim, in the country they settled in, the value of their forsaken property. 

 The Enemy Property Act, enacted in 1968, provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI). The central government, through the Custodian, is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country.  With the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, people migrated from India to Pakistan. The Government of India took over the properties and companies of those who took Pakistani nationality. These “enemy properties” were vested by the central government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI). The same was done for property left behind by those who went to China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.

 The Tashkent Declaration of January 10, 1966 included a clause that said India and Pakistan 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.

These properties were initially managed by the home ministry but shifted to state governments in 1989. Subsequently, evacuee land and properties were transferred to them for management and disposal.

Some Courts decisions and subsequent actions 

Courts initially supported CEPI orders but later verdicts hampered their powers.

The estate of the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad, declared enemy property, was claimed by his son and after a long legal battle, an SC bench on October 21, 2005, ruled in favour of the son. If the “Enemy” dies, then the property will be transferred through succession and it will no longer be enemy property, if the successor is a citizen of India. Also the enemy can sell the property. In another case, the Bombay High Court held that the power of the CEPI does not include the eviction of an occupant in the unauthorized occupation, without following the proper procedure such as filing of the suit or filing a suit for recovery."

On July 2, 2010, the then UPA government promulgated an Ordinance that restrained courts from ordering the government to divest enemy properties from the Custodian. The 2005 SC order was thus rendered ineffective, and the Custodian again took over the Raja’s properties. The Bill was referred to the Standing Committee and thereafter lapsed

On January 7, 2016, the President of India promulgated The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2016, which was replaced by the Bill that became law in 2017. The Act was amended in 2017 to ensure that the successors of those who migrated to Pakistan and China, will have no claim over the properties left behind in India.

In 2017, Parliament passed The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which expanded the definition of the term “enemy subject”, and “enemy firm” to include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.

The amended law provided that enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality, or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-is-enemy-property-in-india-and-how-has-the-government-dealt-with-it-6231854/

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