President Pranab Mukherjee signs ordinance amending Enemy Property Act

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday signed an ordinance amending the Enemy Property Act, 1968 to allow custodians to continue to hold sway over such properties.

The ordinance is aimed at amending the provisions of the Act declaring that all enemy property vested in the 'custodian' of enemy property would continue to vest in the custodian irrespective of the death or extinction of the enemy.

The main aim of the ordinance was to negate the effect of a Court judgment in this regard. The custodian of Enemy Property for India is an Indian government department that is empowered to appropriate property in India owned by Pakistani nationals.

After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, the Enemy Property Act was promulgated in 1968.The Modi government had long been wanting to amend the Act, a move mooted by its predecessor UPA regime.

While the UPA government had promulgated the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, the Bill introduced in Parliament could not be passed due to various issues, including differences within the government itself.

Since assuming charge in May 2014, the NDA government has taken the ordinance route at least a dozen times, with the first nine ordinances being promulgated in the first eight months of the government.

Reports suggested that the President of India had expressed his reservations on promulgating ordinance frequently and had reportedly observed that such a route should be taken only in “compelling circumstances”.