Mahmudabad Mansion in Lucknow’s Hazratganj is an ‘enemy property’. Vishal Srivastava/Express Archive
Over 9,400 enemy properties worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore are set to be taken over by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoUD) as the Union Home Ministry, which acts as a custodian of enemy properties, is moving a cabinet note proposing that control of these properties be vested with the Urban Development ministry for “quick disposal”, top officials said.
MHA recently finalised the rules for transfer of enemy properties but left their disposal to the Urban Development ministry, officials said. Among the suggestions proposed were to give their control to the state governments on rent to set up their administrative headquarters while large properties can be given to Central Forces, including Army and Paramilitary, to set up headquarters or zonal units.
The properties, estimated to be over Rs 1 lakh crore, were left behind by people who took citizenship of Pakistan and China. These were abandoned when wars broke out between India and China in 1962, and India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. After the wars, the central government took over properties of citizens of China and Pakistan in India under the Defence of India Acts.
These Acts defined an ‘enemy’ as a country that committed an act of aggression against India, and its citizens. These properties of enemies in India were classified as enemy property. This included land, buildings, shares held in companies, and gold and jewellery of citizens of enemy countries. The responsibility of the administration of enemy properties was handed over to the Custodian of Enemy Property (CEP) under MHA.
Similar properties in Pakistan belonging to Indians have already been disposed of. In 2017, the government amended the 49-year-old Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act to ensure that the heirs of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during Partition and afterwards hold no claim over the properties left behind in India.
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