The Republics of India and Pakistan emerged after decolonisation and partition accompanied by mass migration of people between the two countries. The Government of India brought in the Administration of Evacuee Property Act 1950 to manage and administer the properties left behind by those who had migrated.
Under the Act any person who on account of the setting up of the Dominions of India and Pakistan or on account of civil disturbances or the fear of such disturbances, leaves or has, on or after the 1st day of March, 1947, left, any place in a State for any place outside the territories now forming part of India were deemed to be evacuee and their properties were termed as evacuee properties.
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Goa Administration of Evacuee Property Act 1962 was introduced after Liberation as the earlier law did not cover Goa. It defines “evacuee as any person (i) who, on account of Liberation of Goa, Daman and Diu, leaves or has, on or after the relevant date, left Goa, Daman and Diu for any place outside India; or (iii) who, during any time before or after the relevant date, has been residing in any place outside India, and who for that reason was or is unable to occupy, supervise or manage in person his property in Goa, Daman and Diu, …………”
The Administration of Evacuee Property Act 1950 came to be replaced by the Enemy Property Act in 1968, to provide for “the continued vesting of enemy property vested in the Custodian of the Enemy Property for India under the Defence of India Rules, 1962 and for the matters connected therewith”. The Act inter alia defined enemy property as “any property for the time being belonging to or held or managed on behalf of an enemy. Defence of India Act defines enemy as;- (i) any person or country committing external aggression against India; (ii) any person belonging to a country committing such aggression; (iii) such other country as may be declared by the Central Government to be assisting the country committing such aggression; (iv) any person belonging to such other country. Thus evacuee property under 1950 Act became enemy property under the 1968 Act.
The law was clearly framed to deal with vacuum created resulting from migration on account of partition. At the relevant time Goa was not part of the Republic of India and Goans living in Goa, India, or Pakistan continued to be Portuguese Nationals, not affected by legislation in India. The difficulties arose after Liberation when Goans were deemed to be citizens of India by virtue of the Citizens Order dated March 28, March1962 which lay down:
Every person who or either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents was born before the twentieth day of December, 1961, in the territories now comprised in the union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, shall be deemed to have become a citizen of India on that day:
Provided that any such person shall not be deemed to have become a citizen of India as aforesaid if within one month from the date of publication of this Order in the Official Gazette that person makes a declaration in writing to the Administrator of Goa, Daman and Diu or any other authority specified by him in this behalf that he chooses to retain the citizenship or nationality which he had immediately before the twentieth day of December, 1961”
By this order clearly all Goans everywhere (not excluding Pakistan) were conferred Indian Citizenship, except those who had opted out. Why then should Goans resident in Pakistan since before the Liberation of Goa be deemed to be enemy citizens? Goans in Pakistan do not come within the definition of those who left India on account of partition. These Goans did not leave the Republic of India at any time. They lived in British India since before the Republics of India and Pakistan were created.
Nevertheless, let us look at another proposition. We proudly claim that Rishi Sunak the PM of UK is a person of Indian origin. If so let us examine the claim. Ramdas Sunak was born to a Punjabi Khatri family from Gujranwala. He left Gujranwala to work as a clerk in Kenya in 1935. He married Suhag Rani Sunak who too was born in Gujranwala. The couple gave birth to a son Yashvir in Kenya who married Usha another Kenya born Punjabi. The couple later migrated to UK where a son Rishi was born. He is now the Prime Minister of the UK. Gujranwala is in Pakistan.
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) civilisation was first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab region and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-daro, near the Indus River in the Sindh region. Both sites are in Pakistan.
Taxila University is an ancient centre of education in north-western Pakistan. Its prosperity in ancient times resulted from its position at the junction of three great trade routes and as a centre of education. Panini, the Sanskrit grammarian, the great Chanakya, Charaka, the famous physician of ancient India and Chandragupta Maurya were its famous alumni.
As we can see, Rishi Sunak who was born in UK to parents born in Kenya and grandparents born in Pakistan. How then does he become Indian? IVC and Taxila are both sites in Pakistan. But do we not proudly lay claim to them and also the alumni of Taxila such as Panini Charaka and Chanakya as our own? If with his grandparent’s Pakistani origins Sunak becomes Indian, how do Goans whose grandparents lived in what is now Pakistan at the same time as Sunak’s grandparents become enemy citizens? Have Goans not been conferred Indian citizenship by the Citizenship Order dated March 28, 1962?
My take is that the Goa Administration of Evacuee Property Act 1962 has neither been repealed nor replaced by The Enemy Property Act 1968 and therefore properties owned in Goa by Goans in Pakistan are evacuee properties and not enemy properties. Besides Goans in Pakistan at the relevant time were Portuguese nationals and Portugal is not an enemy country of India!
(Radharao F Gracias is a senior Trial Court Advocate, a former Independent MLA & a political activist)
