Inheritance & the ‘enemy property’ question: The disputes surrounding Saif & family’s ancestral property

Last month, HC set aside an order upholding Saif & family's ownership of Nawab Hamidullah's property, which now faces division under personal laws & classification under Enemy Property Act.

Saif Ali Khan | X/@HouseofPataudi

Bhopal: Even as the central government is yet to decide whether the property inherited by actor Saif Ali Khan and his family from his great-grandfather, Nawab of Bhopal Hamidullah Khan, classifies as ‘enemy property’, the Madhya Pradesh High Court, in a separate case, has ordered the trial court to hear afresh suits filed for dividing the nawab’s property among his legal heirs.

On 30 June this year, the Madhya Pradesh High Court set aside a 25-years-old trial court order, which, in 2000, upheld Saif Ali Khan and his family as the rightful owners of property inherited from the late Nawab. Hearing a challenge to the 2000 order by Begum Suraiya Rashid, the niece of the nawab, Justice Sanjay Dwivedi of Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered a retrial by the trial court.

The HC opined that “since the trial court without considering the other aspects of the matter had dismissed the suits”, relying upon a judgment already “overruled by the Supreme Court, the matters need to be remanded back to the trial court for deciding it afresh”. In 2000, the trial court, rejected the suits, citing a 1997 Allahabad High Court judgment, since overruled.

In 1991, Begum Suraiya Khan, the granddaughter of Obaidullah Khan, who was Hamidullah Khan’s elder brother, as well as others, moved the suits in the Bhopal district court for partitioning the late nawab’s private property, possessions, and the account of the estate—all under Muslim personal laws.

In 1949, under the rule of Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the then-riyasat of Bhopal merged into Independent India. According to Clause V of the merger agreement, all private property of the ruler is supposed to be under the absolute ownership of the ‘gaddi’ (throne). During his lifetime, the nawab appointed Abida Sultan, the eldest of his three daughters, his heir apparent. However, Abida Sultan migrated to Pakistan, with the nawab’s second daughter, Sajida Sultan, then declared his successor. All private property of the nawab then became the private property of Sajida Sultan and her descendants. The government recognised Sajida Sultan as ‘Nawab of Bhopal’, and in a 10 January 1962 letter, declared all of Nawab Hamidullah’s personal property as Sajida Sultan’s under Article 366 (2) of the Constitution.

Begum Suraiya Khan, along with others, challenged this order, filing a suit in the district court. Calling the government order unlawful, the suit asserted that under Muslim personal laws, Nawab Hamidullah Khan’s personal property should have been divided between the two branches of his family upon his death.

While hearing the appeal against the trial court verdict, Justice Sanjay Dwivedi ordered a fresh hearing of the partition suits . The HC said that if the trial court decided, eventually, to allow those suits, it could also determine the share of the two parties while passing the preliminary decree. That decree, the HC added, could be finalised by the trial court after the conduct of necessary formalities, that is, legal and procedural steps required under Muslim personal laws to effectuate the division of property for partition suits.

The HC noted since the suits were filed years ago, the trial court should make all possible efforts to conclude and decide them expeditiously, preferably within a year.

While the suit filed by Begum Suraiya Rashid seeks the division of the property left by Nawab Hamidullah Khan under Muslim personal laws, Saif Ali Khan, separately, is contesting a notice from the custodian of enemy property.

‘Enemy Property’ 

Saif Ali Khan is the grandson of Sajida Sultan, and thereby, inherited property belonging to the late Nawab Hamidullah Khan and passed on to him by Sajida Sultan’s eldest son and his father, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

However, in a 24 February 2015 notice, the ‘enemy property’ custodian in India (CEPI) declared property belonging to the erstwhile nawab—later inherited by his family—as ‘enemy property’ on the grounds of his initial successor Abida Sultan’s move to Pakistan.

Soon after, actor Saif Ali Khan moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court against the notice. Earlier this year, in January, the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered Saif Ali Khan to place his appeal before the MHA joint secretary. The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017, makes the MHA/Ministry of Home Affairs the appellant authority in cases like this. According to a family insider, the appeal was filed on 8 January 2019. The matter came up for hearing next month, in May 2019.

“The appellant authority has so far issued a notice, seeking the response of the custodian of enemy property on the case and also asked the petitioner [Saif Ali Khan] to file his reply on the matter. The matter will come up for hearing again on 25 July [this month],” said a family source.

According to the family insider, the custodian of enemy property is now considering the property left behind by Abida Sultan, rather than the entire estate inherited by Sajida Sultan, under the ambit of ‘enemy property’.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)