The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a June 30 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that had reopened a five-decade-old partition dispute concerning actor Saif Ali Khan and his family’s status as legal heirs to the personal estate of the Nawab of Bhopal.
A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar issued notice and passed the interim order in a special leave petition filed by Omar Ali (Saif's cousin), a descendant of Obaidullah Khan—the elder brother of Nawab Hamidullah Khan, great grand father of Saif Ali Khan and the last ruler of the erstwhile Bhopal state.
The High Court had set aside the trial court order, which had ruled in February 2000 that the nawab’s private properties are part of the gaddi (throne) of Bhopal and would thus pass on the successor to the throne, Saif Ali Khan’s grandmother.
During the hearing before the top court today, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat stated that this was a fresh matter concerning a suit related to the Nawab of Bhopal, and that after 50 years, the appellate court had remanded the case back to the trial court.
"There was no case of remand made out by the plaintiff or the defendant. No submission made for additional evidence. The appellate court says after the trial court judgement SC has accepted the plaintiff’s point of view in the judgement of Talat Fatima. It remands the entire matter back and says evidence had to be lead afresh!," he added.
Kamath further argued that the High Court’s order, which prohibited the alienation of third-party rights, was still in effect.
To this, the Court said,
"We’ll grant stay."
Saif Ali Khan, his mother Sharmila Tagore and sisters Soha Ali Khan and Saba Ali Khan inherited the property through his father’s mother, Sajida Sultan.
Sajida Sultan’s father, Hamidullah Khan, was the nawab of Bhopal Riyasat, which merged with India in 1949. After Hamidullah Khan died in 1960, Sajida Sultan became the Nawab. The throne would have ordinarily passed to Sajida Sultan’s elder sister, Abida Sultan, but she migrated to Pakistan in 1950.
In 1962, the Government of India declared Nawab Hamidullah Khan’s personal property as the personal property of Sajida Sultan.
However, Nawab Hamidullah Khan's other family members, including the descendants of his brother Obaidullah Khan and his third daughter Rabia Sultan, challenged the transfer of properties to Sajida Sultan.
In a June 30 order, Justice Sanjay Dwivedi said that the matter should be reconsidered afresh by the trial court.
“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 finalized by the trial Court itself after carrying out the necessary formalities of partition,” the High Court said.
Challenging this, the petitioner moved the Supreme Court.
The petitioner was represented by Kamat along with advocates Aadil Singh Boparai and Sourav Roy.