Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) [India], July 4 : The Madhya Pradesh High Court has set aside a 25-year-old trial court's order in relation to Bhopal Nawab's properties dispute and remanded back to the trial Court for deciding it afresh.
The descendants of Bhopal's Nawab Hamidullah Khan, who passed away in 1960, along with the heirs of his elder brother, Obaidullah Khan, initiated legal proceedings in 1999 to seek division and inheritance of the Nawab's private properties according to Muslim Personal Law.
Speaking to ANI, an advocate for the respondent Harshit Bari, said, "The matter is related to a property dispute of the Bhopal Nawab's family, which has been overdue since 1960 after the death of Nawab Hamidullah Khan. When the property was handed over to Sajida Sultan, daughter of Hamidullah Khan, in the civil suit due to principle of primogeniture and the Royal Bhopal Act, it was said that because she is the only heir and ruler so being the successor, all the private properties should be given to her."
"It was wrong because after the implementation of the Constitution, the property division of 'riyasat' should be according to the Muslim Personal Law. With reference to the judgment of Rampur state case which was upheld by the Supreme Court, where the partition was equally distributed among all relatives, the MP High Court mentioned it in its order that as the position of law has been changed, so now the partition should be made according to the Muslim Personal Law and remand back the matter to trial court, setting aside the decree of principle of primogeniture," Bari said.
In the order stated by the trial court 25 years ago, a decree was made according to the principle of primogeniture in which the successor of the ruler was entrusted with all private properties. As Sajida Sultan was the successor and was the new ruler, all the private properties were allocated to her with the said decree. Now that decree has been set aside, he added.
"The order of June 30 stated that the matter has been remanded back to trial court and the trial court has been asked that the property should be partitioned according to Muslim Personal Law among all relatives and given a time of one year for the purpose," the advocate said.
He added that the matter is related to the family of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, his paternal grandmother Sajida Sultan's sisters and Obedullah Khan, elder brother of Nawab Hamidullah Khan.
According to the High Court order copy, it observed, "The trial Court without considering the other aspects of the matter had dismissed the suits, that too relying upon the judgment which has already been overruled by the Supreme Court, the matters need to be remanded back to the trial Court for deciding it afresh because these are the suits for partition and if ultimately, the trial Court comes to the conclusion that suits have to be allowed then share of the parties can be determined only by the trial Court while passing the preliminary decree and that can be further finalised by the trial Court itself after carrying out the necessary formalities of partition."
"The impugned judgment and decree deserve to be and are hereby set aside. The matters are remanded back to the trial Court for deciding it afresh and if so required, the trial Court can allow the parties to lead further evidence in view of the subsequent development and changed legal position. It is made clear that since the suits were initially filed in the year 1999, therefore, the trial Court shall make all possible efforts to conclude and decide it expeditiously, preferably within a period of one year," it added.