Jaipur ex-royals' property dispute of Rs 15,000 crore gets settled

The Jaipur former royal family's property dispute worth Rs 15000 crore, going on for nearly two and a half decades, has been settled with the mediation of the Supreme Court.

In the settlement of this property dispute, the grandson of late Maharani Gayatri Devi has been given the ownership rights over the Jaimahal Hotel. At the same time, the Supreme Court has also settled the dispute over Rambagh Palace, in this agreement.

With this decision, the dispute over property worth thousands of crores has come to an end. Along with this, the estrangement that arose due to property disputes in the former royal family is also expected to reduce.

The dispute started about 24 years ago after the death of Jagat Singh in 1997. Former Maharaja Mansingh handed over his property to Jagat Singh, the only son of Maharani Gayatri Devi. But after the death of Jagat Singh, this matter continued in the courts for almost 24 years.

Jagat Singh was married to Priyanandana of the Thailand royal family. However his marriage with Priyanandana did not last long. After the separation of Jagat Singh and Priyanandana, their children Devraj and Lalitya started living with Priyanandana in Thailand.

Priyanandana had moved the court because during her stay in Thailand, the Jaimahal Palace was taken over by Vijit Singh, son of Prithviraj Singh, who was Maharaj Mansingh's second wife's son.

After this, Priyanandana moved the court to get the rights of her children in this property.

Now, the settlement has come through the mediation of Justice Kurian Joseph, a retired Supreme Court judge. According to the agreement former Maharaj Mansingh of the Jaipur royal family and former Maharani Gayatri Devi's grandson Devraj and granddaughter Lalitya are the successors of late Jagat Singh.

According to the agreement, the full rights of Jaimahal Palace, now a five-star hotel located in the heart of Jaipur city, have been handed over to Devraj and Lalitya. The control of Vijit Singh from Jaimahal Palace has been completely removed.

The share rights of Rambagh Palace Hotel have been handed over to Jai Singh, son of Maharaja Mansingh and Vijit Singh, son of Prithviraj. Devraj Singh and Lalitya have also been mentioned in this Supreme Agreement and a clause about compensating them from the share of Rambagh Palace has been mentioned.

Both the hotels are under the Tata Group presently.

Both entities have accepted the decision, confirmed officials.

--IANS

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