Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, following a recent stabbing of the actor during a burglary of his Mumbai residence, is currently facing a legal battle over his ancestral Pataudi properties in Bhopal. It could be valued as high as ₹15,000 crore, this family wealth is under attack under the Enemy Property Act, 1968, after a recent Madhya Pradesh High Court order that vacated the stay order on the property.
What Do Ancestral Pataudi Properties Include?
The actor’s Bhopal estate includes iconic landmarks like the Flag Staff House, Noor-Us-Sabah Palace, and Dar-Us-Salam. This property originally belonged to Saif’s grandmother, Sajida Sultan, the daughter of Bhopal’s last Nawab, Hamidullah Khan.
In 2015, the property was legally claimed by the eldest daughter of Hamidullah Khan, Abida Sultan, who has lived in Pakistan since 1950. The Enemy Property Act permits the Indian government to seize the properties of the people who migrated to Pakistan after partition.
But for a time in 2019, a judge’s order declared Sajida Sultan to be the true heir, giving a short respite to the family. Now that a new court decision, Saif Ali Khan and his mother, the veteran actress Sharmila Tagore have to some complicated legal management to regain the property.
Saif Ali Khan is Now a Nawab Without Inheritance
In contrast to being a member of royal ancestry, Saif Ali Khan has consistently stressed that a large portion of his family’s fortunes had been depleted through the years. In a 2019 interview, Saif revealed he had to repurchase the Pataudi Palace in Gurugram after it was leased to a hotel group. He went on to say, “Not even the house that supposedly inherited had to be recovered by film money.
Saif shared that his grandmother, Sajida Sultan, had managed the family’s Bhopal properties before moving to Delhi. “She lived in a big old house in Delhi given to her for a lifetime in exchange for property deals with the Indian government,” Saif recounted in an earlier interview.
In presenting themselves to this course of litigation, Saif and his kith and kin raise the following issues concerning ancestral estates and the far-reaching effects of post-Partition legislation in India.
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