The home ministry, in a notification, says that in case of enemy properties “valued below ₹1 crore in rural areas and valued below ₹5 crore in urban areas, the custodian shall (make an) offer of purchase to the occupant first and if the occupant refuses the offer of purchase, then the enemy property shall be disposed of…”
The official communication stated that “rural area” means any area in a state except those areas covered by any urban local body or a Cantonment Board while “urban area” means any area within the limits of a municipal corporation or municipality as the Central government may, having regard to the population, concentration of industries, need for proper planning of the area…”
The Custodian of Enemy Properties is empowered to dispose of “enemy properties” by sale of transfer with approval of the Centre. In 2020, a Group of Ministers headed by Union home minister Amit Shah was set up to monitor the disposal of enemy properties. The value of the earlier 9,406 ‘enemy properties’ across the country was estimated to be ₹1 lakh crore but later nearly 3,000 more such properties were identified.
