NEW DELHI: The Indian government has revived a controversial ordinance to grab land from the heirs of owners who migrated to Pakistan, the main victim being the Raja of Mehmoodabad, whose father went away to Karachi as a close aide of the Quaid but his son stayed behind, newspaper reports said on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court had restored the massive estates to the current Raja Mehmoodabad, Suleiman Mian, but the then home minister, P. Chidambaram, had promulgated an ordinance to negate the verdict. Mr Chidamabaram had earlier appeared as lawyer in the court to oppose the Raja’s claim.

He reportedly used his privileged insights as lawyer to undermine the court’s decision as minister.

The current ordinance is a variant of the previous one, though President Pranab Mukherjee was not happy on Sunday when it was sent to him for re-promulgation but without consulting the cabinet.

The reports said Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a section of India’s business and transactions law to send to the president the ordinance, which amends the Enemy Property Act, a 48-year-old law to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan or China after wars.

President Mukherjee signed the ordinance, or executive order, for the fourth time on Sunday to amend the law that the government has been unable to pass in parliament. But reports said he was upset that it was sent to him this time without being routed through the union cabinet.

President Mukherjee, in his note, told the Modi government that he was signing the ordinance in the interest of public good, but warned that the cabinet must not be bypassed ever again. He reportedly also said this must never be cited as a precedent.

This is the first time since 1947 that an ordinance has been sent to the president without the cabinet first clearing it.

The Lok Sabha had passed a bill to amend the act earlier this year, but opposition parties want it reviewed and have stalled it in the Rajya Sabha (parliament’s upper house), where the government is in a minority, forcing it to keep it alive by issuing ordinance after ordinance.

When the government had last sent the ordinance for President Mukherjee’s signature, he had objected to it, noting that an executive order was being issued despite parliament being in session for over three months. That was in May this year, just after the budget session of parliament had ended.

The government was in a hurry as the earlier ordinance would have lapsed on Sunday. With many days of this short monsoon session lost to other government bills, the government was unable to bring the bill in parliament, newspaper reports said.

Large swathes prime land in Lucknow, including the bustling Hazratganj market, and Nainital are among the prizes that the Supreme Court put in the lap of Raja Mehmoodabad, which the government took away.

Published in Dawn September 1st, 2016