After 50-year court battle, 16 Rampur heirs to get share in royal property worth Rs 2,650 crore

Rampur (Uttar Pradesh), December 12

Sixteen heirs of the erstwhile Nawab of Rampur will finally get their share of the royal property after a five-decade battle in court.

Property worth over Rs 2,650 crore of the erstwhile Nawab of Rampur, Raza Ali Khan, will be divided among his 16 legal heirs according to Shariat rules.

The court of Rampur district judge has now given the verdict on the 'partition scheme', following the Supreme Court's order of July 31, 2019.

Advocate Mukesh Saxena, counsel for one of the heirs, Kazim Ali Khan, said "The file has been sent to the apex court for the final decree." Nawab Raza Ali Khan, who let Rampur join India in 1949, was survived by three wives, three sons and six daughters after his death in 1966.

The government recognised the eldest of his three sons, Murtaza Ali Khan, as the sole inheritor according to the customary law.

This was challenged in court by his siblings in 1972 and thus began a long battle in the family.

The heirs include late Murtaza's daughter Nikhat Bi, son Murad Mian and late Zulfiqar Ali Khan Bahadur's wife Begum Noor Bano (a former MP), her son Naved Mian and others.

The share of Syeda Mehrunnisa Begum, descendant of the late Nawab and wife of Pakistan Air Marshal Abdul Rahim, will be handed over to the custodian of enemy property, which is the Indian Government, as she is now a Pakistani national.

It may be recalled that in February 2020, the strongroom of the family at the Khasbagh Palace was opened as part of the exercise to evaluate the royal treasures. When the locks of an armoury in the palace, spread over 450 acres, was broken, the evaluation team found guns with intricate designs, gem studded swords and handcrafted knives. A garage had vintage cars imported from the US and Europe that included a Plymouth (1957), Dodge convertible (1954), Austin convertible (1956), Buick (1939) and Willys Jeep (1956).

The immovable properties to be divided among 16 claimants include the 200-acre Benazir Bagh palace, Sarhari Kunda palace, Shahbad Bagh palace and a private railway station.

District government counsel Arun Prakash Saxena said, "As per the partition plan, all 16 legal heirs will get a share.

Two of the legal heirs have died during the long court battle, and their heirs would be entitled to get their share." The Muslim law recognises two types of heirs, sharers and residuaries. Sharers are those who are entitled to a certain share in the property, and residuaries would take their share in the property that is left after the sharers have taken their parts. IANS

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