SC Stays Fresh Trial in Rs 15,000 Crore Bhopal Royal Estate Dispute

The Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Atul S Chandurkar issued notice on the Special Leave Petition and stayed the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order directing a fresh trial in the 50-year-old suits.

Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, along with Advocates Aadil Singh Boparai, and Sourav Roy appeared for the Pataudi family.

Kamat submitted that the MP High Court had erroneously remanded the matter despite neither party seeking additional evidence or retrial. "This is a fresh civil suit involving the Nawab of Bhopal’s estate. After 50 years, the appellate court sends it back to the trial court, citing the Supreme Court’s Talat Fatima judgment, but that judgment actually supports us,” Kamat argued.

The underlying dispute pertains to inheritance claims over multiple royal properties left behind by His Highness Nawab Mohammad Hamidullah Khan, the last ruler of Bhopal, who passed away in 1960. The properties, spread across Madhya Pradesh, were the subject of two civil suits filed in 1971 and 1972, which were dismissed by a common trial court judgment in 2000, making Saif Ali Khan the sole legal heir of the Bhopal estates.

That decision was then challenged before the MP High Court, which decided the appeals only in June 2025; 25 years later, only to remand the case back to the trial court for a full retrial.

During the hearing, Kamat contended that the High Court’s reliance on Talat Fatima Hasan v. Syed Murtaza Ali Khan, (2020) 15 SCC 655, was misplaced. “The judgment clearly holds that private properties of erstwhile rulers are to devolve under personal law, not princely succession. That legal issue is already settled. There’s no question of re-recording evidence,” he argued.

He also pointed out that the High Court had already passed an interim order restraining the creation of third-party rights over the properties, and the petitioners were not seeking any stay beyond that.

After briefly hearing the matter, the Bench ordered issuance of notice and remarked, “We’ll stay the remand.”

The matter will now return to the Supreme Court for final adjudication on whether the High Court ought to have decided the appeals on merits rather than sending the matter back to square one.

Notably, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had has set aside a 25-year-old trial court decree that had affirmed actor Saif Ali Khan and his family's ownership of properties worth thousands of crores inherited from the former royal family of Bhopal. Two appeals were filed against the common judgment dated February 14, 2000, passed by the District Judge, Bhopal, in Suit Nos. 63-A/1999 and 64-A/1999, wherein the claims of partition, possession, and settlement of the estate left by Nawab Hamidullah Khan were dismissed.

Nawab Hamidullah Khan was the last ruler of the princely state of Bhopal. He had three daughters, Abida Sultan, Sajida Sultan, and Rabia Sultan, with his first wife, Maimoona Sultan. While Abida Sultan migrated to Pakistan, Sajida Sultan married Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi. Their son, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, captained the Indian cricket team and later married actor Sharmila Tagore. The couple had three children: actor Saif Ali Khan, jewellery designer Saba Ali Khan, and actor Soha Ali Khan.

In 2000, a Bhopal district court had upheld the ownership of Nawab Hamidullah Khan's properties in favour of Sharmila Tagore, Saif Ali Khan, and his two sisters, ruling them as rightful successors. However, the order was challenged by Begum Suraiya Rashid—granddaughter of Nawab Hamidullah Khan’s elder brother Obaidullah Khan—and by Rabia Sultan, one of the Nawab’s daughters

Watch the Nawab of Pataudi’s Bhopal Property Dispute Explained

Case Title: Omar Faruq Ali v. Sharmila Tagore

Hearing Date: August 8, 2025

Bench: Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Atul S Chandurkar