The Madhya Pradesh High Court has set aside a 2000 trial court ruling that had declared Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and his family the legal heirs to the Nawab of Bhopal’s personal estate, said to be worth over ₹15,000 crore today.
In a detailed order passed on June 30, Justice Sanjay Dwivedi observed that the trial court had relied on a 1996 Allahabad High Court judgment which has since been overruled by the Supreme Court in 2019. The High Court therefore ordered that the matter be remanded to the trial court for fresh consideration.
“Since the trial court, without considering other aspects, dismissed the suits relying on a judgment overruled by the Supreme Court, the matter needs to be reconsidered afresh,” the High Court said.
The estate in question originally belonged to Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal Riyasat, which merged with India in 1949. Upon his death in 1960, his younger daughter Sajida Sultan — grandmother of Saif Ali Khan — succeeded him as Nawab, since her elder sister Abida Sultan had migrated to Pakistan in 1950.
Sajida Sultan’s descendants — including Sharmila Tagore, Soha Ali Khan, and Saba Ali Khan — have since claimed ownership over the Nawab’s personal properties.
In 1962, the Government of India issued a notification recognizing Sajida Sultan as the rightful owner of Hamidullah Khan’s personal property. Based on this, the trial court in February 2000 ruled that these properties formed part of the “gaddi” (throne) and thus transferred solely to Sajida Sultan and her legal heirs.
This transfer was challenged by other family members of Nawab Hamidullah Khan, including the descendants of his brother Obaidullah Khan and third daughter Rabia Sultan. They argued that the estate should be divided according to Muslim personal law, and the 1962 government recognition was not legally binding in matters of personal inheritance.
On the other side, Saif Ali Khan’s family contended that the merger agreement between Bhopal and India governed the transfer, and under its terms, the entire estate passed to Sajida Sultan as the next ruler. Only her successors, they argued, could claim ownership.
The trial court had accepted this argument, citing the Allahabad High Court ruling in Miss Talat Fatima Hasan v. His Highness Nawab Syed Murtaza Ali Khan Sahib Bahadur, a case involving the Nawab of Rampur’s estate.
Accordingly, he remanded the case back to the trial court, directing it to re-examine the matter on its merits, particularly in the context of partition claims and Muslim personal law, if applicable.
For the appellants: Advocates Aadil Singh Bopari, Abhishek Dubey, Ayesha Jamal, K Jaggi, and Gurlabh Singh Sidhu
For the respondents: Senior Advocates S Sreevastava, Sanjay Agrawal, and Advocates Arjun Rao, Sooraj Bajpai, Aishwarya Vikram, Shrikant Mishra, Siddharth Sharma, Adil Usmani, Akhilesh Jain, Sheersh Agrawal, Sanjeev Tuli, Varun Tankha, and Harshit Bari
The High Court’s ruling effectively revives the inheritance dispute and opens the door for other claimants from the Nawab’s extended family to assert their legal rights over the sprawling estate
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