 "Saif Ali Khan's Rs 15000 crore property case: How the controversy began and why it may reignite old tensions in Nawab's family")
In a massive setback for Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, the actor recently lost out on properties belonging to the Pataudi family worth Rs 15000 crore as the Madhya Pradesh High Court declared them as ‘Enemy Property.’ They overturned a 1999 verdict favouring his great-grandmother, Sajida Sultan.
As per India’s Enemy Property Act, such assets are those left by individuals who migrated to Pakistan post-Partition (1947) or became citizens there—here, due to Sajida’s brother moving to Pakistan. The government can now manage or seize them.
How did it all begin?
We have to talk about Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal. He had three daughters: Abida Sultan, Sajida Sultan (the great grandmother of Saif Ali Khan, and Rabia Sultan.
Under the Bhopal Succession to the Throne Act of 1947, his eldest daughter, Abida, was supposed to inherit his fortunes. But in 1950, Abida moved to Pakistan—ten years before her father passed away. That implied her inheritance could be seized under the Enemy Property Act. And Sajida Sultan was declared the legal successor. It is said (but not confirmed) that her marriage with Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and his close ties to then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru helped secure her claim to the estate.
What next in this controversy?
The district court is now going to examine every detail of the case. Nobody from the Pataudi family has commented on the matter yet. Will this ruling create a sense of animosity or anger in the family? It also throws light on the legal system in the new and Independent India.
What netizens are saying
Oh so this property doesn’t belong to him anymore? Any udea about that Delhi Pataudi house? Called for a complete retrial is the sessions of fight start again from the beginning?
I think with this judgement it will affect the delhi case too unless it belongs to saif lineage. Here the bhopal properties were from inception where saif grandfather had three daughters where one of them shifted to Pakistan so government claimed these.
Yes he won’t get any part of all these properties and it will all become government/india’s property. Saif’s grand aunt chose to move to Pakistan with her husband during partition so her share becomes enemy property.
Are these Bhopal properties the only ancestral properties he had? I mean, does he not have any other ones that he can claim?
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