Just Working In Pakistan Does Not Make A Person Enemy Under Defence Rules: Kerala High Court (Photo @tdanil)

While considering a petition filed by a Malappuram native, P. Ummer Koya, the Kerala High Court recently ruled that an individual cannot be considered an enemy merely because he had moved to Pakistan in search of a job under Rules 130 and 138 of the Defence of India Rules, 1971. 

While hearing the case, Justice Viju Abraham observed that  Rules 130 and 138 of the Defence of India were restricted to trading with an ‘enemy’ or being part of any ‘enemy firm’ carrying out business with India, adding that the court could not find evidence that the petitioner’s father was involved in trading with the enemy.

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Overturning the proceedings against the petitioner, the court said that the sole reason that the petitioner’s father had gone to Pakistan and worked there for a short period would not bring his father within the definition of ‘enemy’ under Rules 130 or 138 of the Defence of India Rules, 1971. The court noted that the Rules 130 and 138 were provided for a totally different purpose and the reliance placed on the said Rules is “totally out of context and irrelevant to the facts of the case in hand.”

The petitioner, the 74-year-old retired Kerala Police Service officer, had challenged the inclusion of his property under the Enemy Property Act, of 1968. The petitioner’s father, Pulikutty Akathu Kunhikoya, had traveled to Karachi in 1953 seeking employment. He stated that his father worked only for a short period in Pakistan. He returned to India and continued to live in his native village until his death in 1995.

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The issue emerged when he had bought property in Malappuram’s Parappanangadi from his father and went to pay Basic Tax on the property. The village officer reportedly refused to accept tax saying that there were orders from the Custodian of Enemy Property of India (CEPI) as proceedings were initiated under the Enemy Property Act, 1968.

However, the court also ordered the the concerned authorities to collect tax on the property which was in Ummerkoya’s father’s name

Notably, it is reported that the petitioner after being haunted by the police branding him as Pakistani citizen had approached the government to determine his citizenship. The Union Government had declared that the petitioner’s father continues to be an Indian citizen as he did not gained Pakistan citizenship when he went to the neighboring country.