Madhya Pradesh HC issues notice to Centre on Sharmila Tagore's petition

She has challenged government's decision to take control of properties of the last Nawab of Bhopal

Madhya Pradesh High Court today issued a notice to the Union government and others on a petition filed by noted Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore. She has challenged the government's decision to take control of properties of the last Nawab of Bhopal.

In his order issued yesterday, Justice Alok Aradhe has also continued its stay on the execution of a February 25 order by the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEP) to take possession of the nawab’s properties inherited by the family of former cricketer and Tagore's late husband Mansoor Ali Khan, as “enemy property” under the Enemy Property Act, 1968.

The court has demanded that replies in this regard should be filed in four weeks.

The court has also served notices to principal secretary, state revenue department while hearing the petition. Tagore’s daughter Sabah Ali Khan and actress Soha Ali Khan also filed the petition along with her. They are the heirs of the late Nawab of Bhopal. Her son Saif has also filed a petition on similar issue.

Tagore’s lawer Rajesh Pancholi is learnt to have told the court that CEPI order violet the “merger agreement” between erstwhile Nawab of Bhopal Hamidullah Khan Bahadur and the then Union government to merge the princely state of Bhopal into Union of India.

The CEP order declared Nawab properties as ‘enemy properties’ since his elder daughter princess Abida Sultan had migrated to Pakistan in 1950. Pancholi has also argued that she (Abida) had moved to Pakistan when Nawab was alive at her own so there was no question for the property to be considered as “enemy property.”

The Pataudi family also argues that after Nawab’s death, his second daughter Mehr Taj Sajida Sultan Begum was declared the successor of property in accordance with Succession of Throne Act of Bhopal, 1947.

On April 23 this year, Justice Vandana Kasrekar had stayed the February 25 order.

The nawab’s properties include residential properties and several cottages -- listed in the merger agreement as "private properties”. They are worth crores of rupees.

The Enemy of Property Act 1968 was promulgated after the 1965 Indo-Pak war. The Act says that properties left behind by those who migrated to Pakistan would be labeled as "enemy" properties and allows the government to take control of them through CEPI.