No Disposal Of Enemy Properties Even After 73 Years Of Partition

Even after 73 years since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the pain still lingers and so are the properties left behind by people fleeing to Pakistan. The properties remained in India where they fell victim to encroachment or illegal occupation. But everything changed with the 1965 war.

Three years later, India passed the Enemy Property Act, 1968, and the government took over the properties, land, lockers, deposits, company shares left behind by the Nawabs, Jagirdars and others, and declared them as custodians. The task of this custodian was to maintain and dispose of all these buildings, immovable enemy property.

Recently in the Lok Sabha, the government had said that a total of Rs 12,426 properties in India are vested in the custodian of Enemy Property of India under the act and their total value is about 1 lakh crore rupees. The highest number of such buildings are in Uttar Pradesh, where 5,936 buildings and land fall under 'enemy property'. A large part of this belonged to King Mahmudabad, whose father Mohammad Aamir Ahmed Khan left India in 1947 and went to Iraq. He took Pakistani citizenship in 1957.

His confiscated properties include Butler Palace, Mahmudabad Haveli, Lorry Building and Court at Hazratganj, Lucknow. These are all major real estate holdings, especially a huge market spanning 200,000 square feet. Howeber, his heirs have regained a share after a long legal battle. These are the heirs who never left India.

After this, the highest number of such properties are in West Bengal, where 4,301 properties are covered under this act. Whereas, many people from West Bengal had moved to East Pakistan at the time of Partition, which later became Bangladesh. In February this year, the Custodian of Enemy Properties in West Bengal started making a list of legal hassle-free properties that could be auctioned.

These buildings include the properties of B.B.D Bag (erstwhile Dalhousie Square - Central Business Center), 1 & 1-B British Indian Street, Fear Lane, Ganesh Chandra Avenue, Netaji Subhash Road. The list also includes the property of National Bank of Pakistan located on Netaji Subhash Road.

The country's capital Delhi has 659 enemy properties and most of it is in Moti Khan, Kucha Kalan, Daryaganj, Paharganj and Ajmeri Gate areas of Old Delhi.

Apart from this, 295 properties exist in Goa, 208 in Maharashtra, 157 in Telangana and 152 in Gujarat.

The central government wants all these assets to be disposed of. In January this year, a Group of Ministers (GoM) was formed under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to dispose of over 9,400 enemy assets. However, this process had to be slowed down in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.