The Madhya Pradesh High Court has overturned a trial court’s 2000 ruling that had recognised Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and his family as the rightful heirs to the personal estate of the Nawab of Bhopal.
Justice Sanjay Dwivedi, in an order dated June 30, said that the trial court had based its decision on a 1996 Allahabad High Court ruling which the Supreme Court has since overruled.
“I am of the opinion that since 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 order stated as reported by Bar and Bench on Monday.
The properties in question — estimated to be worth Rs 15,000 crore — were previously held to be part of the Bhopal royal estate and passed on to Saif Ali Khan’s grandmother, Nawab Sajida Sultan, who succeeded her father, Nawab Hamidullah Khan, after his death in 1960.
The succession was challenged by other descendants of Nawab Hamidullah Khan, including those of his brother Obaidullah Khan and third daughter Rabia Sultan.
They argued that upon the Nawab’s death, the estate should have been divided among all legal heirs according to Muslim Personal Law, not handed entirely to Sajida Sultan.
Saif Ali Khan, along with his mother Sharmila Tagore and sisters Soha and Saba Ali Khan, maintained that succession was governed by the merger agreement signed between the princely state of Bhopal and the Indian government in 1949.
They contended that under this agreement, royal properties were to pass to the next recognised ruler, and the Government of India had issued a notification in 1962 naming Sajida Sultan as such. “Only Sajida Sultan’s successors can claim the right over the ownership of the property of the Nawab and nobody else,” their legal team argued.
The high court observed that the 2000 trial court order had leaned heavily on the Allahabad High Court’s ruling in Miss Talat Fatima Hasan v His Highness Nawab Syed Murtaza Ali Khan Sahib Bahadur and others—a case concerning the Rampur royal estate.
But that judgment was overruled in 2019 by the Supreme Court in Talat Fatima Hasan through Her Constituted Attorney Syed Mehdi Husain vs. Syed Murtaza Ali Khan (Dead) by legal representatives and Others.
Justice Dwivedi concluded that the trial court must re-examine the matter in light of all relevant legal aspects.