MP HC Rejects Saif’s Plea On Ancestral Property

In a major setback to actor Saif Ali Khan, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed his long-standing plea against the government’s decision to classify his ancestral properties in the state, valued at over `15,000 crore, as ‘enemy property.’

The High Court has also overturned a Trial Court order in the decades-old Bhopal royal family dispute. The earlier ruling had recognised Saif Ali Khan, along with his mother Sharmila Tagore and sisters Soha and Saba Ali Khan, as legal successors to the royal estate through Sajida Sultan, Saif’s great-grandmother and daughter of Nawab Hamidullah Khan.

However, heirs of Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal, who passed away in 1960, had contested this succession. They argued that the property should be divided in accordance with the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937, which was applicable at the time of the Nawab’s death. The heirs had approached the Trial Court in 1999, seeking a partition of the properties.

Now, the High Court has directed the Trial Court to restart proceedings from scratch and conclude the case within a year. The ruling could potentially alter the entire inheritance structure of the Bhopal royal family.