SC dissolves marriage that turned sour over 1951 Rolls Royce

The Supreme Court has finally dissolved a royal wedlock which turned into deadlock over a 1951 model antique hand-made classic Rolls Royce car — ordered by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the erstwhile 'Maharani' of Baroda — after the man agreed to pay Rs 2.25 crore to the woman under a mediated settlement.

The 1951 model antique hand-made classic Rolls Royce car, a single model till date, is currently valued at over Rs 2.5 crore.

“In exercise of the power conferred upon us by Article 142 of the Constitution of India, we dissolve the marriage between the petitioner and respondent No.1. There shall be no relationship, matrimonial or otherwise, between them hitherto,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice Surya Kant said on August 29, quashing all the cases filed by the couple against each other.

According to the settlement reached between the parties, the wife will retain gifts given by the husband and his family while the man agreed to return all the gifts received by him and his family i.e. engagement ring, achkan buttons and 10 gram ginni.

The man handed over a Rs 1 crore bank draft and the gift items to the woman on August 29 itself and undertook pay the rest Rs 1.25 crore by November 30, 2025.

The matter landed in the top court after the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed a case lodged by the woman against her husband for alleged dowry demand and cruelty.

The Bench had in November 2024 and asked the parties to explore the possibility of a mediated settlement. "If both settle the dispute amicably, then there is nothing like that," Justice Kant had told senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, who represented the wife. It had appointed senior advocate R Basant as a mediator.

The woman, a permanent resident of Gwalior, claimed that she belonged to a highly reputed family whose ancestor was admiral in the navy of Chhatarpati Shivaji Maharaj and was declared ruler of Konkan region while the husband hailed from a family with an Army background and ran an educational institution in Madhya Pradesh.

She had alleged that her estranged husband and his family had continuously harassed her with dowry demands of a Rolls Royce car and a flat in Mumbai, a charge denied by the man.

"For that the high court failed to consider that since inception, the Respondent No. 1 & 2 had a mala fide intention of demanding the Rolls Royce car — which is one of its kind and is handmade by HJ Mulliner & Co. for Maharani Baroda Chimna Bai Sahib Gaekwad ordered on her behalf by first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru — and one flat in Mumbai.

"When the demands of the respondents were not met, they started denying the marriage and making false and frivolous allegations against the petitioner and started assassinating her character," she had alleged.

Challenging the high court order of December 5, 2023, she had said in her petition, "... it is clear that the respondent No. 1 (husband) and 2 (father of husband) have shown their fascination for the Rolls Royce car belonging to the father of the petitioner (woman). In that context, they expected to receive the said car in gift and with regard to a flat in Mumbai; and non-fulfilment of this dowry demand was precisely the reason for not taking the petitioner to her matrimonial home."

The husband had lodged a case of cheating and forgery against his estranged wife, her parents and relatives in preparation of marriage certificate, while the woman lodged a case for dowry harassment and cruelty. Her FIR was quashed by the high court, terming it as an afterthought.

The husband questioned the sanctity of marriage between the two that took place April 20, 2018, at Rishikesh in Uttarakhand and said, "The whole occasion was treated as a 'symbolic marriage' required for astrological reasons as per the petitioner's family guru. Parties have not stayed together for a single day as husband and wife" and the purported marriage remained unconsummated.

The woman "fraudulently" got the purported marriage between the parties registered at Gwalior, the man had alleged. He also denied ever demanding the Rolls Royce car and a flat in Mumbai as dowry.