Indian "Enemy Property" Law to Affect Muslims
New Delhi, India TwoCircles.net, in four articles dated 13, 13, 14, 15 March 2011, reports that current legislation has set many Muslims fuming.
In 1947, Pakistan split off from India. At that time, many Muslims migrated to Pakistan, leaving behind property they owned. In 1965, after a war with Pakistan, India passed a law declaring all such property left behind by migrants to be, Enemy Property. That property was then confiscated.
Last year, the son of one such migrant, won a decades old legal battle to reclaim the property his father left behind when he migrated to Pakistan in 1957. This court case, according to the article, has lawmakers worried that they will be flooded with court cases to reclaim lost property. In order to stop that from happening, the article states that lawmakers have reintroduced an Enemy Property bill, that would quash all such claims.
Here are some brief excerpts from the articles:
The Congress-led Central Government is working on a new enemy property law that will directly affect thousands of genuine Indian Muslims who preferred to live in the country when their close relatives were migrating to Pakistan. The new law will deprive them of the properties that they inherited from their migrating relatives.
Not only this, the Enemy Property Amendment Bill will deprive the heirs, almost all of them are Muslims, of their legal right to seek judicial redressal and claim their properties confiscated by the Custodian of Enemy Properties. After the war with Pakistan in 1965, India declared all such properties left by the migrants Enemy Property and its appointed custodian captured the
properties claiming they belong to enemies while their owners and occupiers are genuine Indian Muslims who enjoy full citizenship and civil rights as Indian citizens.
But fearing that thousands of such genuine claimants of the enemy properties will turn up to reclaim their confiscated properties, the Union Government issued an ordinance on 2nd July 2010. However, it withdrew the ordinance after the protest from civil society.
A ray of hope was kindled after the long-drawn legal battle of Raja Mahmoodabad last year but it is being defeated now by a legal sleight of hand. The first attempt was made last summer when the Union home minister tried to sneak in an ordinance insulting and defeating the purpose of Parliament. The move was defeated due to a quick and strong reaction of civil society. Now the home ministry is seeking to pass it through Parliament with some cosmetic changes which will deprive thousands of Indian Muslims of their rights and strip of their right to seek justice through
courts, said Dr Zafrul Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette fortnightly.
Talking to TwoCircles.net from Bhiwandi this morning Dr Khan said: The new law will affect thousands of Muslims who genuinely inherited the properties. It will justify the illegal capture of Hindus on such properties. He urged the community leaders to come out and put pressure on the
government to withdraw the bill that is simply against Muslims. He urged immediate action from the community as the parliamentary committee working on the draft is closing its door for comments and interventions by civil society on 15th March 2011.
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Enemy Property Law to Affect Muslims » The Flying Mufti