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Supreme Court Pauses Fresh Adjudication of Bhopal Nawab’s Estate

Petitioners argued the remand breached civil procedure norms, prompting a stay with a hearing set for September on preserving the 2000 trial ruling.

Overview

  • The Supreme Court granted an interim stay on the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s June 30 order to send the decades-old estate dispute back for fresh adjudication.
  • A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Atul Chandurkar issued notices to the Union, Madhya Pradesh government and all heirs and listed the matter for a further hearing in early September.
  • Omar Faruq Ali and Raashid Ali challenged the remand under Civil Procedure Code norms, arguing no party had sought new evidence or a retrial.
  • The stay leaves intact the February 2000 trial court judgment that recognized Nawab Hamidullah Khan’s daughter Sajida Sultan and her descendants, including Saif Ali Khan, as sole heirs.
  • The dispute centers on whether a 1962 government succession certificate overrides Muslim personal law, as affirmed by the Supreme Court in its 2019 ruling on private property succession.