Singh helps Raja win his empire back By Economic Times
https://tehalkatodayindia.blogspot.com/2010/08/singh-helps-raja-win-his-empire-back.html
NEW DELHI: It's a king’s tale with many twists and turns but a happy ending. Thanks to an intervention by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad will get back his properties across Uttaranchal and UP, together worth thousands of crores, in deference to a 2005 apex court order that had followed a prolonged 32-year litigation over ownership.
Mr Singh’s intervention restoring the properties in question to Amir Mohammad Khan, erstwhile ruler of Mahmudabad, would result in the Ordinance issued by the central government last week extinguishing Khan’s legal rights over the “enemy property” allowed to be lapsed on August 28. The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2010, that was to come up in the current session to replace the Ordinance, has now been struck off the list of parliamentary business.
The Ordinance invalidating the apex court order reinstating the properties of erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad was promulgated last week at the behest of the home ministry, which had reportedly argued that the SC ruling had opened a Pandora’s box with owners of similar ‘enemy properties’ across the country coming forward to seek their restoration on the same plea.
Mr P Chidambaram was all set to bring a Bill to replace the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, but pressure from the minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid who mobilised political opinion against the Ordinance stymied the home ministry’s move.
Mr Khurshid approached the prime minister to convey that the ordinance would result in chaos in Uttar Pradesh, leading the latter to order the proposed bill to be struck of parliamentary business list.
The properties had originally belonged to Amir Mohammad Khan’s father, a founding member of the Muslim League who migrated to Pakistan during Partition. His wife, Begum Kaneez Abdi, stayed back in India. The property was identified as evacuee property after Partition and thereafter declared ‘enemy property’ in the wake of the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.
This spawned a legal battle with Amir Mohammad Khan approaching the courts claiming ancestral rights over the multi-million properties. A 32-year litigation ensued, with tenants too filing counter cases, but ended on a victorious note for the erstwhile Raja in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled in his favour and asked the government to hand him all his properties back.
The court order was based on the plea that since Khan had chosen not to migrate with his father to Pakistan and has stayed on in India as a rightful Indian citizen, he was entitled to reclaim his rights over different properties taken over by the custodian — an official appointed by the Centre.
However, there was considerable opposition to the apex court order from within the Centre. The home ministry was particularly keen to negate the Supreme Court’s ruling with an ordinance extinguishing Khan’s rights over the various buildings and complexes. An ordinance was promulgated by President Pratibha Patil last week declaring that all enemy property would continue to remain vested in the custodian.
As per the ordinance, even courts are not entitled to alter the status of any property that was once declared ‘enemy property’. This meant that prime properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees in Lucknow’s prime shopping centre, Hazratganj, Nainital, Sitapur and Lakhimpur-Kheri would go back to the custodian or its lessees.
Given the lucrative worth of the properties involved, the Mayawati government was all too happy to implement the ordinance and started ordering the sealing of buildings and land across Lucknow, Lakhimpur, Kheri and Barabanki. Since the bungalows of the district magistrate, superintendent of police and chief medical officer in Sitapur had also been handed over to the Raja, the official machinery began working overtime to get possession of these buildings.
Even as Mr Chidambaram was all set to bring the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2010, before Parliament, the minority affairs ministry stepped in and got the prime minister to take the initiative to invalidate the ordinance.
Thanks to Mr Singh’s intervention, the ordinance would lapse later this month, paving the way for the erstwhile Raja to keep his rightful riches.
Mr Singh’s intervention restoring the properties in question to Amir Mohammad Khan, erstwhile ruler of Mahmudabad, would result in the Ordinance issued by the central government last week extinguishing Khan’s legal rights over the “enemy property” allowed to be lapsed on August 28. The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2010, that was to come up in the current session to replace the Ordinance, has now been struck off the list of parliamentary business.
The Ordinance invalidating the apex court order reinstating the properties of erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad was promulgated last week at the behest of the home ministry, which had reportedly argued that the SC ruling had opened a Pandora’s box with owners of similar ‘enemy properties’ across the country coming forward to seek their restoration on the same plea.
Mr P Chidambaram was all set to bring a Bill to replace the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, but pressure from the minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid who mobilised political opinion against the Ordinance stymied the home ministry’s move.
Mr Khurshid approached the prime minister to convey that the ordinance would result in chaos in Uttar Pradesh, leading the latter to order the proposed bill to be struck of parliamentary business list.
The properties had originally belonged to Amir Mohammad Khan’s father, a founding member of the Muslim League who migrated to Pakistan during Partition. His wife, Begum Kaneez Abdi, stayed back in India. The property was identified as evacuee property after Partition and thereafter declared ‘enemy property’ in the wake of the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.
This spawned a legal battle with Amir Mohammad Khan approaching the courts claiming ancestral rights over the multi-million properties. A 32-year litigation ensued, with tenants too filing counter cases, but ended on a victorious note for the erstwhile Raja in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled in his favour and asked the government to hand him all his properties back.
The court order was based on the plea that since Khan had chosen not to migrate with his father to Pakistan and has stayed on in India as a rightful Indian citizen, he was entitled to reclaim his rights over different properties taken over by the custodian — an official appointed by the Centre.
However, there was considerable opposition to the apex court order from within the Centre. The home ministry was particularly keen to negate the Supreme Court’s ruling with an ordinance extinguishing Khan’s rights over the various buildings and complexes. An ordinance was promulgated by President Pratibha Patil last week declaring that all enemy property would continue to remain vested in the custodian.
As per the ordinance, even courts are not entitled to alter the status of any property that was once declared ‘enemy property’. This meant that prime properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees in Lucknow’s prime shopping centre, Hazratganj, Nainital, Sitapur and Lakhimpur-Kheri would go back to the custodian or its lessees.
Given the lucrative worth of the properties involved, the Mayawati government was all too happy to implement the ordinance and started ordering the sealing of buildings and land across Lucknow, Lakhimpur, Kheri and Barabanki. Since the bungalows of the district magistrate, superintendent of police and chief medical officer in Sitapur had also been handed over to the Raja, the official machinery began working overtime to get possession of these buildings.
Even as Mr Chidambaram was all set to bring the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2010, before Parliament, the minority affairs ministry stepped in and got the prime minister to take the initiative to invalidate the ordinance.
Thanks to Mr Singh’s intervention, the ordinance would lapse later this month, paving the way for the erstwhile Raja to keep his rightful riches.
