ENEMY
PROPERTY ACT - POLITY
News: 30% of ‘enemy properties’ in Uttar Pradesh are illegally occupied, shows government data
What's
in the news?
● As the Uttar Pradesh government gears up for a Statewide drive to clear encroachments of ‘enemy properties’ across the State, government data accessed by The Hindu shows that about 30% of such properties in the State are under illegal occupation.
Key
takeaways:
●
According to the U.P. government, about
1,467 such properties have been occupied by mafia and others, while around 369
are occupied by co-occupiers and 424 are occupied by tenants who have taken the
properties for rent at nominal rates during the tenure of previous State
governments.
●
Overall, about 2,250 of the 5,936 existing
such properties in the State are occupied.
Enemy
Property:
● ‘Enemy properties’ refer to the properties left behind by the people who migrated from India to Pakistan or other countries with whom India has hostilities.
Enemy
Property - Backdrop:
●
In the wake of the India-Pakistan wars of
1965 and 1971, there was the migration of people from India to Pakistan.
●
Under the Defence of India Rules framed under the Defence of India Act, 1962,
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.
●
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.
Enemy
Property Act, 1968:
●
The Enemy Property Act, enacted in 1968,
provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian of Enemy
Property for India.
● The central government, through the Custodian, is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country. Some movable properties too, are categorized as enemy properties.
The
Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017:
● The act amended The Enemy Property Act, 1968, and The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
Salient
features of the new act:
●
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 and
○
The succeeding firm of an enemy firm, irrespective of the nationality of its
members or partners.
●
The enemy property continues 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.
●
The Custodian may dispose of enemy
properties:
○
With prior approval of the central
government, the Custodian may dispose of enemy properties vested in him in
accordance with the provisions of the Act, and the government may issue
directions to the Custodian for this purpose.