Enemy Property Act: MP High Court Refuses To Intervene In Case Of Sharmila Tagore, Saif Ali Khan |
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The High Court, principal bench of Jabalpur, refused to intervene in an Enemy Property case of actress Sharmila Tagore, her son Saif Ali Khan and Sabiha Sultan.
A single bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal has given the Pataudi family the freedom to present an application before the appellate authority in New Delhi in the Custodian of Enemy Property Act case.
While disposing of the petition, the single bench in its order said the appellate authority should take a decision on the basis of merits and demerits.
A petition was filed by the Pataudi family in 2015. They had challenged the government’s decision to take control of the properties of the last Nawab of Bhopal under the Enemy Property Act, 1968.
In its order, Custodian of Enemy Property for India, Mumbai (CEPI) had declared the Nawab’s properties as enemy property because his elder daughter princess Abida Sultan had gone to Pakistan in 1950. She (Abida) had gone to Pakistan while the Nawab was alive.
After the death of the Nawab, his second daughter Mehr Taj Sajida Sultan Begum was declared heir to the property as per the Bhopal Succession to the Throne Act, 1947 and the petitioners are her heirs.
The CEPI order is in violation of the merger agreement between the then Nawab of Bhopal Hamidullah Khan Bahadur and the then Central Government for merging the Bhopal State into the Union of India.
Advocate Rajesh Pancholi, who looks after the Pataudi family legal cases, told Free Press: “The HC has refused to intervene into the matter. The HC advised the family to approach the appellate authority in New Delhi in the Custodian of Enemy Property Act case.”
