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Journalism of Courage
The Cabinet is meeting on Thursday to clear crucial amendments to the Enemy Property(Amendment & Validation) Bill,2010,that will ensure protection of interests of Muslim inheritors of enemy property,who stayed back in India while their relatives went to Pakistan.
The amendments are significant as they will end the bitter tussle between the Home Ministry and the Minority Affairs Ministry over the Bill it is pending before Parliamentwhich aims to amend the Enemy Property Act,1968,and the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act,1971. Sources said the matter was settled at a midnight meeting on Monday,which was attended by senior ministers and Congress leaders,including party chief Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel.
The proposed amendments to the validation Bill will ensure that a Muslim citizen of India,who is a legal inheritor of an enemy property,is able to retain ownership after the death of the original owner even if the deceasedhad gone to Pakistan after Partition. Moreover,in case the legal heir resides in a country other than Pakistan,which is an enemy country under the Act,he would be entitled to claim the property if he proves his inheritance.
The government was forced to seek amendments to the Enemy Property Act,1968,since a series of judgments by various courts eroded the powers of the Custodian of the enemy property,sometimes making it difficult for him to sustain his actions under the Act.
The amendments also make it clear that rights of an enemy property would continue to vest in the Custodian until divested by the Central government even if the 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.
Muslim MPs,including some ministers,had come out against the Bill after the Centre issued an ordinance in July,restricting sale or any other transaction of enemy property.
