BHOPAL, India, 3 September 2005 — A legal battle has started here between two scions of the erstwhile ruling family of Bhopal — veteran cricketer Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and his sister Princess Sabiha Sultan. And as can be expected of blue-blooded royals, a bruised ego was all that needed for the sister to take on her brother in the legal arena.
The princess decided to file a civil suit against Pataudi after she was not allowed to stay at the Flag Staff House, a palace jointly owned by the family here. Hyderabad-based Sabiha and her husband used to stay at the Flag Staff House during their visits to Bhopal. However, Pataudi refused to arrange for their stay in the palace in July this year. Pataudi is the administrator of family holdings.
In her complaint, Sabiha has sought the recognition of her right to use jointly owned properties. Her lawyer told the court that she did not wish to appear before the court personally. Accepting the request, the court appointed a commissioner to record her evidence. On Thursday, the commissioner recorded her evidence in her room in a swanky heritage hotel where she is staying. The palace, which now houses the hotel, was also owned by the family.
A former captain of the Indian cricket team, Pataudi told the court he was merely a tenant at Flag Staff House — where his maternal grandfather Hamidullah Khan, the late Nawab of Bhopal, lived — paying a monthly rent of 2,000 rupees. He does not have the right to let anyone else stay there.
So who does he pay the rent to? The tenancy papers Pataudi’s counsel, Akhtar Saeed Khan, placed before the court had the answer: His grandmother, the Begum of Bhopal, who has been dead for years.
The wrangle is the latest in a series of squabbles involving royal houses with ties to cricket. The Gaekwads — who produced Indian cricket captain Dattajirao and Test batsman Anshuman — are fighting over the 35,000-million-rupee Laxmi Vilas palace, spread over 700 acres in the heart of Baroda.
Jyotiraditya Scindia — whose late father Madhavrao was Indian cricket board chief — is pitted against his three aunts: Vasundhara Raje (the Rajasthan chief minister), Usha Raje and Yashodhara Raje. The prize: prime properties in Bombay.
The Bhopal royal family has been locked for decades in a legal battle over the entire property — including 23 prime ones worth millions— that belonged to the late nawab. Nawab Hamidullah, who died in 1960, left behind three daughters — Abida, Sajida and Rabia. Since Abida, mother of former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shaharyar Khan, had already emigrated to Pakistan, Pataudi’s mother Sajida was declared successor to the title and property.
The sons of Hamidullah’s brothers weighed in with a wave of litigation, arguing that the Muslim law of inheritance provides for a hefty share for paternal nephews. Most of the cases are pending in the Jabalpur High Court, which has stayed any buying or selling of the property. Now Sabiha has moved court after Pataudi barred her from Flag Staff. She argues she has a right to stay there as Sajida’s daughter. Earlier, whenever she and her husband traveled to Bhopal from their home in Hyderabad, they would stay at the mansion.
“All of a sudden, Nawab Pataudi said you can’t stay,” she said. “I filed a suit claiming that as per Muslim law, Nawab Pataudi gets half of the property and his two sisters get one-fourth each,” Sabiha’s counsel said. “Till the property is divided, every co-owner has the right to use it.”
Faiza Sultan, daughter of Pataudi’s youngest aunt Rabia, was deported from Bhopal last year after trying to have a finger in the property pie. Faiza, a Pakistani, was on a visit to India with husband Sardar Akbar Khan and their two sons. Before being bundled out of the country, the sardar pointed fingers at “someone politically influential” for the “forced deportation.”
He said his wife had a “rightful claim” to vast tracts of land at Koh-e-Fiza, Khanugaon, Chicklod and Firdaus Farm, all once owned by Hamidullah. The sardar also alleged that Pataudi was violating his mother’s undertaking to a court by selling off parts of the land in collusion with local builders. Pataudi’s lawyer denies the charge.
Meanwhile, Sabiha told reporters that though she had filed a case against him, she enjoyed a “very cordial relationship” with Pataudi.
