Prez questions but okays enemy property ordinance

According to sources, Pranab Mukherjee questioned why Centre was unable to pass the bill and was pushing ordinances for the fifth time

President Pranab Mukherjee is believed to have raised questions on the Centre’s move to push another ordinance to allow a department to continue to hold sway over “enemy” properties in the country. However, Mukherjee has cleared the ordinance for the fifth time.

The legislation related to the ordinance could not be passed for at least three years, prompting the Centre to go the ordinance route to maintain a status quo.

Sources told HT that the President questioned why the government was unable to pass the bill and was pushing ordinances one after another.

The law provides that all properties belonging to persons who had left the country and gone to Pakistan or China — the two countries that had waged war against India — were by definition ‘enemy properties’ and had to be taken over by the government.

The custodian of enemy property for India is an Indian government department that is empowered to appropriate such property in India. After the India-Pakistan war of 1965, the Enemy Property Act was promulgated in 1968.

Both the erstwhile UPA government and the NDA has struggled to pass the bill in Parliament.

In the recently-concluded winter session, the government could not get the bill passed as the Opposition resorted to disruptions to protest against demonetisation.

“The last time, when an ordinance was proposed on the legislation, the President was unhappy and wanted to know why it was not passed for such a long time,” said a source.

The source added that Mukherjee maintains that ordinances should be used only in rare cases and Parliament should debate and clear bills.

PROPERTIES OF PERSONS WHO HAD GONE TO PAK OR CHINA — WHICH HAVE WAGED WAR AGAINST INDIA — ARE BY DEFINITION ‘ENEMY PROPERTIES’