Willed south Mumbai flat in family row not enemy property, rules HC

MUMBAI: A Parsi spinster, before dying last year, willed her Pedder Road flat to her brother who had migrated to Pakistan in the 1950s but later became a Canadian citizen.
The flat in the landmark building Woodlands “be sold and the money (given to him)”, said the will. But her death sparked a battle in the Bombay high court, in which the Enemy Property Act and the Defence of India Act and Rules were invoked by the will’s caveators (persons interested in a matter before a court and who seek to be heard).

The woman’s other heirs —a nephew and a niece, children of her late sister—filed a caveat when an executor of the will sought its probate (the legal process to decide genuineness and correctness of a will).
The duo challenged the bequest to their uncle as “void”, stating that under law, he is an “enemy” and not entitled to be a beneficiary under the Enemy Property Act, 1968 (which enables and regulates the appropriation of property in India owned by Pakistani nationals). The high court rejected the claim.
“(The flat is) not enemy property as of date. The property is not vesting in a custodian,” said Justice A K Menon. Hence, he said, the question whether the brother is an enemy or an enemy subject loses significance. He said the property was clearly the woman’s, who was an Indian, and hence her bequest couldn’t be challenged as void.