The Enemy Property Act was imposed in the year 1968 by the Government of India, which provided for the continuous granting of enemy property in the Custodian.The Central Government is the caretaker of Enemy Property for India spread across many states in the country.

The concept behind the enemy property law, whether it is the Enemy Property Act,1968 or the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, is that any country with which India has gone to war, its citizens cannot be allowed to hold property in India.

What is Enemy Property Act, 1968 and why it needs amendment?

After the Chinese invasion in 1962, specific properties of Chinese nationals in India were vested in the custodian as per the Defence of India Rules, 1962. Later, after the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and 1971, the movable and immovable properties of Pakistani nationals automatically got vested in the custodian and their vesting was continued under the 1968 Act. Pakistan did the same with the  Indian-owned properties in Pakistan.

Since then, the government of Pakistan has disposed of all the properties of Indians seized by it in Pakistan including in former East Pakistan in violation of the Tashkent Declaration. This declaration was signed on January 10, 1966 included a clause, which said that India and Pakistan would talk over the return of the property and assets taken over by both side in connection with the 1965 war.

To prevent the inherent properties from falling into the hands of legal inheritor of those who shifted to other countries, the UPA government proposed a similar rule in 2010, which it let failure, because it could not replace it with an Act of parliament.

When and why The present ordinance “The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016” was stopped for passing in Rajya Sabha?

For the first time, The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016 was discussed on January 7, 2016. On March 9, 2016, It was passed by the Lok Sabha. Accordingly, it was referred to a select panel of the Rajya Sabha. While it was being considered by the panel, the mandate was re-declared for the 2nd time on April 2, 2016.  The panel presented its report to the Rajya Sabha on May 6, 2016.

On May 31, 2016, the law was then reissued for the 3rd time, including the corrections recommended by the committee. As the Bill could not be considered in Rajya Sabha, the law was re-declared for the 4th time on August 28, 2016.

On December 22, President Pranab Mukherjee approved the declaration of the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act for the 5th time.

But this long battle has come to an end on 10th March, 2017 by a voice vote after all opposition members present in the upper house walked out in protest one after the other. The Lok Sabha passed the bill last year in March. The opposition has been holding up the passage of the enemy property bill in the Rajya Sabha forcing the government to change to re-declaration of the ordinance five times during the NDA Governance for want of the Rajya Sabha’s approval.

This bill revises the Enemy Property Act, 1968, to imply all rights, titles and interests over enemy property in the custodian and declares transfer of property by the enemy as invalid. As per the government record over 16500 property worth approx. 1 lakh crore of those who have migrated to Pakistan.

Currently, they have inherent with the government appointed custodian. Legal actions by various citizens, distant relatives of the original owners, have created obstacle as the existing law doesn’t allow the custodian to dispose the property. But this new law will make disposal of any such property easier.

One of the disputed provisions of the bill is that it changes the meaning of “enemy” and “enemy subject” to include the legal heir(s) or successor(s) of the enemy, even if the respondent is a citizen of India or a non-enemy country.

According to the new bill, the law of succession will not apply to the legal heir(s) or successor(s) of the enemy. The bill also make illegal civil courts and other authorities from engaging debates and disputes related to enemy property.

Oppositions tried to obstruct this time too but the government ignored the opposition’s request and proceed further to pass the bill. As the Enemy property Ordinance made public by the president was going to lapse on 14th March, 2017.