Bhopal: Saif Ali Khan and the Pataudi family suffered a legal setback as the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected the actor’s plea challenging the government’s decision to label his Rs 15,000-crore ancestral properties in the state as ‘enemy property’.
Setting aside a trial court order of 2000 that deemed Saif, his sisters Soha and Saba, and mother Sharmila Tagore as successors to the ancestral properties, the high court directed the trial court to hear the property succession dispute afresh and set a timeframe of one year, India Today reported.
The Pataudi family has been claiming their lands in Bhopal and Raisen, and said that properties including Noor-e-Saba, Flag House, Dar-us-Salam, Four Quarters, New Quarters, Fars Khana, Kohefiza and Ahmedabad Palace belong to them.
Long-standing case
In 1947, Bhopal was a princely state whose last Nawab Hamidullah Khan was former India captain and Saif’s father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s maternal grandfather.
Nawab Hamidullah’s eldest daughter Abida Sultan migrated to Pakistan in 1950, but his second daughter Sajida Sultan remained in India, and married Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Saif’s grandfather, and became legal heir of the properties.
Descendants of Bhopal state had filed two appeals in MP High Court 25 years ago against the order passed by the Bhopal District Court.
The appeal stated that Nawab Hamidullah Khan died on February 4, 1960, while Bhopal state merged with the Indian Union on April 30, 1949. As per a written agreement, special rights of the Nawab would continue after the merger and the succession of full ownership of personal property will be under the Bhopal Throne Succession Act, 1947.
Sajida Sultan was declared the Nawab after Hamidullah Khan’s demise. The government issued a letter on January 10, 1962, mentioning the ancestral property under Article 366 (22) of the Constitution.
According to Muslim Personal Law, Hamidullah Khan’s personal property should have been divided between the plaintiffs and defendants after his death. An application was filed in Bhopal District Court demanding property succession, but it was rejected on the basis of the decision passed by Allahabad High Court.
Why trial court had dismissed case
The Madhya Pradesh High Court said in its order the trial court had dismissed the case going by Allahabad High Court order, without considering other aspects of the case. The high court said the trial court didn’t consider the fact that the Throne Succession Act was struck down by the Supreme Court on merger.
Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, his wife Sharmila, their son Saif and daughters Saba and Soha were made respondents in the appeal.
Nawab of Bhopal’s land was declared as government property in 2015 by Mumbai-based Enemy Property Custodian Office.
The Pataudi family thereafter moved court.
The court recognised Sajida Sultan as the legal heir in 2019, and her grandson Saif inherited a share of the properties. However, Abida Sultan’s migration to Pakistan in 1950 led to the Central government claiming the properties as ‘enemy property’.
The Enemy Property Act, 1968 allows the Central government to claim properties owned by individuals who migrated to Pakistan after Partition in 1947.
