Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950: Evacuees & Who Manages it

The Partition of 1947 has been recorded as one of the largest human migrations. Due to these newly established national borders, a significant number of individuals had to leave their properties behind to settle in a new place.

Post-independence, the Government of India passed the Evacuee Property Act in 1950 to ensure that rightful ownership rights could be maintained on either side of the border.

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The Evacuee Properties Act specifies that a property evacuated by Indian citizens migrating to Pakistan during the partition and its aftermath remains under the supervision of a government-appointed custodian.

Therefore, if any individual illegally damages any such property or attempts to convert it for personal usage, they will be prosecuted under the administration of this act. As a punishment, a convicted person can be sentenced to jail time for a maximum period of three years.

Alternatively, they may need to put down a substantial fine. In certain scenarios, an accused may need to face both forfeiture and incarceration.

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Procedural structure regarding the administration of Evacuee Property Act 1950 states that a property will be considered an evacuee property which belongs to an evacuee. The evacuee can hold the property as-

• Owner
• Tennant
• Trusty
• Beneficiary
• Any other capacity

This act also notes if any individual retained a right of a property from an evacuee via any form of transfer after the 14th of August in 1947, then this property will also be regarded as an evacuee property.  In simple words, after the partition of India, 1947 properties that are left behind by individuals who migrated to Pakistan are referred to as the evacuee properties in India.

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This act also highlights several scenarios under which any belonging will not be considered an evacuee property. For one, it mandates that these products do not come under the purview of the law to be regarded as evacuee properties:

• Apparels
• Ornaments
• Utensils
• Household items which used to be in immediate possession of an evacuee

The act also states that if a property was owned by a joint stock company whose registered office was already established in a locality before the 15th of August in 1947, which is now a forming part of Pakistan, it too would not be considered an evacuee property.

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As per this act, as mentioned above, an evacuee is an individual who has left India on the 1st of March in 1947 and can be considered an evacuee under the circumstances stated below:

• An individual left their property behind on account of the newfound territorial domains of India and Pakistan.
• The individual now stays in any place belonging to Pakistan and is unable to occupy, or manage their property in the places where this Act is applicable.
• They had left the country due to the ongoing civil disturbance in the partition era.
• A person has left their residence due to a fear of such social unrest. 

In other words, as these individuals are unable to manage, supervise, and especially occupy their own property in India as now-residents of Pakistan, they are referred to as evacuees. However, there are some other crucial and interesting facets of this scenario.

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For example, an individual, as mentioned above, has a right to become an owner of an evacuated property in Pakistan left behind by citizens moving to India during this partition. There are certain laws in Pakistan that allow such a person to obtain ownership of this aforementioned property without the means of purchasing or exchanging. Consequently, this landowner will also be considered an evacuee under the Evacuee Property Act.

Moreover, if an Indian citizen migrated to Pakistan after the 18th of October in 1949 without having retained the approval of the custodian in India, he or she too will also be recorded as an evacuee.

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Before the year of 1989, the management of evacuee property was conducted by the rehabilitation division of the Indian central government's Ministry of Home Affairs.

With the passing of time, the process of rehabilitating the individuals originally displaced from West Pakistan mostly came to a conclusion. Therefore, the responsibility of evacuee property management was bestowed on the state governments. State Governments appointed Custodians to manage and look after these properties.

As a result, these state governments hold the decision-making rights of adequate management of such land and property or their disposal: after proper scrutiny is done.

Suffice it to say, management of evacuated properties in the wake of mass migration had been a daunting endeavour for both Indian and Pakistani governments. However, as a notable example of cross-border harmony, both of these countries have tried in their own way to provide comfort to the refugees while safeguarding their rights. In India, the Evacuee Property Act has been a pivotal step in this regard.

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