After partition, many people left their land and property and went to Pakistan. They were called enemy property. But the government did not make any practical law to fix their ownership, taking advantage of which many people took possession of them by presenting fake claims. The land mafia illegally erected buildings on many enemy properties. Now the government has started the initiative to take possession of such land and property spread across the country. Anshuman Shukla is telling.
At present, there are enemy properties worth about one lakh crore rupees in the country, which have no creditors. Of these, maximum 5936 enemy properties are in Uttar Pradesh. If we only talk about the capital Lucknow, then there are disputed properties worth thousands of crores in Hazratganj, the elite area there. After the order of the Supreme Court, in January 2020, the Group of Ministers constituted under the leadership of the Union Home Minister was to dispose of about 9400 properties of the country. But due to Corona, no initiative has been taken in this direction.
At the time of partition, lakhs of people left India and went to Pakistan. He left his house all the time. The havelis and land-mass of such people are still lying like that. Most of these have been captured. After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, the Government of India passed the Enemy Property Act 1968 and appointed Custodians by taking possession of the lands, lockers, safes, deposits, shares in companies, etc. of the Nawabs, Jagirdars and others who had left India. Gave. Since then these custodians have been looking after all these buildings. According to the information given in the Lok Sabha in January 2020, there were a total of 12,426 properties in India under this law, whose value was estimated at Rs 1 lakh crore.
ownership of properties
A few years back the Enemy Property Ordinance 2016 got the assent of the President. Since then, the ownership of about 2050 properties has come to the Government of India. The people occupied by these will neither be able to sell it nor give it to anyone. Under the amended ordinance, the ownership will be considered from 1968, when this law was made.
The largest share of enemy property in the country belonged to Raja Mahmudabad of Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. His father Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan left India in 1947 and went to Iraq. He later took citizenship of Pakistan in 1957. His properties include Butler Palace, Mahmudabad Haveli, Lorry Building and Court in Hazratganj, Lucknow. The property is spread over an area of about two lakh square feet. After the new ordinance, once again the custodian had the ownership of crores of property located in Lucknow, Sitapur and Nainital of King Mahmudabad. After this, the current Raja of Mahmudabad, Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, challenged the ordinance in the court. They did not leave India. After a long battle, his descendants won from the Supreme Court. However, so far they have not got possession of any property.
Butler Palace in Lucknow, where the State Property Department has made a colony. There is a palace and a giant lake in this area. Many shops in Mahmudabad House and Hazratganj. The District Magistrate, Senior Superintendent of Police and Chief Development Officer residences are on his property in Sitapur. The total number of such properties is 936, whose value is being estimated at about fifty thousand crores.
indifferent attitude
The attitude of the state governments regarding enemy properties in Uttar Pradesh has been indifferent since the beginning. Such properties worth thousands of crores, from which the state government could have got revenue of billions of rupees, but they are sitting on their hands. The result of this apathy of the government is that illegal occupiers are in possession of such properties and the government is not doing anything to free them. Many disputes are going on in twenty-two districts of the state regarding enemy property.
In this, the condition is worse in the districts of western Uttar Pradesh. Where has the property of about five hundred crores gone, no one cares or cares about it. Now the Center and the state have called for reports from all the districts regarding the protection of enemy property that is disappearing very fast. In view of the huge disturbances in enemy properties in twenty two districts of Uttar Pradesh, the Central Government has reviewed the present status of such enemy properties. Along with this, instructions have been issued regarding the identification, vesting control, protection, management and settlement of ongoing disputes. Thirty-six enemy properties are recorded in government records in Meerut. In this, five properties have been disposed of in a statutory manner. Thirty-one properties are still occupied. After Meerut, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Gautam Budh Nagar, Moradabad, Amroha are at the forefront of enemy property.
new initiative
Parliament approved the Enemy Property Law Amendment Bill 2017. In which provisions have been made to stop the succession claims on the properties left by the people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the war. This bill will replace an ordinance issued by the government in this regard. The lower house rejected the resolution disapproving the Fifth Ordinance, 2016 for Amendment and Validation of Enemy Property, moved by NK Premachandran of the RSP in this regard. Responding to the discussion in this regard, the then Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that no government should allow its enemy nation or its citizens to hold property or use it for commercial interests. The right of enemy property should be with the government and not with the heirs of citizens of enemy countries.
He then said that when there is a war with a country, it is considered an enemy. The Enemy Property Amendment and Validation Bill 2017 must be seen in the context of the Indo-China war of 1962, the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 and the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. In relation to this bill brought in relation to Pakistani and Chinese citizens leaving their ancestral property in the background of the above wars and going to the enemy country, Rajnath Singh said that it is important to pass this bill because it is not possible to do so. There will be loss of property worth lakhs of crores of rupees.
In this Bill, some words have been substituted, in which for sixty-seventh, sixty-eightth, 2016 for 2017 and any laws, etc., have been substituted. The Bill proposes that no suit or proceeding under this Act, as amended by the Enemy Property Amendment and Validation Act 2017, shall be entertained in respect of any property or any action taken by the Central Government or the Custodian in this behalf. Will happen.
According to the provisions of the Bill, even if any heir of the owner of the enemy property returns to India, he will have no claim on this property. Once passed into the custody of the Custodian, the heir will have no right over the enemy property.
politics of appeasement
The Government of India did not make any concrete law regarding evacuee properties till 1968. Had the famous dispute over the properties of King Mahmudabad not come to the fore, there would have been no law in this regard even today. Raja Mahmudabad Amir Muhammad Khan, the then talukdar of Lucknow, who played a key role in the partition of India, migrated to Pakistan in 1957 after the partition of India. He died in London in 1973. Amir Muhammad’s son Amir Muhammad, who allegedly lived with his mother in India, was studying in Cambridge during this period.
After returning to India, he claimed his father’s properties. After this claim, due to the poor Evacuation and Enemy Property Act, when the civil court accepted them as the heir to these properties, the Government of India woke up from sleep. But even after this, the then Indira Gandhi government of 1981, instead of making any strong law, tried to compromise on the condition of returning twenty-five percent of their confiscated property from them. This agreement did not materialise. It is a matter of regret that due to these lax laws made for confiscation of enemy property, the court also declared them as heirs of these properties.
Even today there is no one to take care of enemy properties in Uttar Pradesh. Whatever action the governments have taken so far in this direction is nothing but mere paperwork. Most of the enemy properties have been occupied by people for decades. There is no one to check and no one to inquire. Don’t know how many such properties are there which the land mafia got trapped in.