After scindias , gaekwads, mewars and jamkhandis now it is the turn of Bhopal royals to fight Tenant nawab in Rs 2,000 defence - Sister claims right to use estate Pataudi, Sabiha: No love lost It’s a googly worthy of a man who captained India’s legendary spin quartet. In his property dispute with sister Sabiha Sultan, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s logic is: he can’t let her in because the palace isn’t his. The former India skipper today told a local court he was merely a tenant at Flag Staff House — where his maternal grandfather Hamidullah Khan, the late Nawab of Bhopal, lived — paying a monthly rent of Rs 2,000. He does not have the right to let anyone else stay there. So who does he pay the rent to? The tenancy papers Pataudi’s counsel, Akhtar Saeed Khan, placed before the court had the answer: his grandmother, the Begum of Bhopal, who has been dead for years. The wrangle is the latest in a series of squabbles involving royal houses with ties to cricket. The Gaekwads — who produced India captain Dattajirao and Test batsman Angshuman — are fighting over the Rs 3,500-crore Laxmi Vilas palace, spread over 700 acres in the heart of Vadodara. Jyotiraditya Scindia — whose late father Madhavrao was Indian cricket board chief — is pitted against his three aunts: Vasundhara Raje (the Rajasthan chief minister), Usha Raje and Yashodhara Raje. The prize: prime properties in Mumbai. The Bhopal royal family has been locked for decades in a legal battle over the entire property — including 23 prime ones worth hundreds of crores — that belonged to the late Nawab. The sonless Hamidullah, who died in 1960, left behind three daughters — Abida, Sajida and Rabia. Since Abida, mother of former Pakistan foreign secretary Shaharyar Khan, had already emigrated to Pakistan, Pataudi’s mother Sajida was declared successor to the title and property. The sons of Hamidullah’s brothers weighed in with a wave of litigation, arguing that the Muslim law of inheritance provides for a hefty share for paternal nephews. Most of the cases are pending in Jabalpur High Court, which has stayed any buying or selling of the property. Now Sabiha has moved court after Pataudi barred her from Flag Staff. She argues she has a right to stay there as Sajida’s daughter. Earlier, whenever she and her husband travelled to Bhopal from their home in Hyderabad, they would stay at the mansion. “All of a sudden, Nawab Pataudi said you can’t stay,” she said. “I filed a suit claiming that as per Muslim law, Nawab Pataudi gets half of the property and his two sisters get one-fourth each,” Sabiha’s counsel said. “Till the property is divided, every co-owner has the right to use it.” “Where is the question of settling property when the high court has… (ordered) status quo?” Pataudi’s counsel told The Telegraph. Pataudi is no stranger to sister trouble, though. Faiza Sultan, daughter of his youngest aunt Rabia, was deported from Bhopal last year after trying to get a finger in the property pie. Faiza, a Pakistani, was on a visit with husband Sardar Akbar Khan and their two sons. Before being bundled out of the country, the Sardar pointed fingers at “someone politically influential” for the “forced deportation”. He had said his wife had a “rightful claim” to vast tracts of land at Koh-e-Fiza, Khanugaon, Chicklod and Firdaus Farm, all once owned by Hamidullah. The Sardar also alleged that Pataudi was violating his mother’s undertaking to a court by selling off parts of the land in collusion with some local builders. Pataudi’s lawyer denies the charge. The average Bhopali, watching from the sidelines, isn’t amused. “The Nawab (Hamidullah) built schools, hospitals and mosques. His descendants would sell them off too if they could,” said Fatehullah, a man who claimed to have served at Flag Staff. Another resident, Azizullah, wondered why Pataudi was barring his sister from a palace whose only occupants are the dozens of servants. “Perhaps he is afraid she will refuse to leave and stake a claim,” he said _______________________________________________ Bhopal, Sept 2 There is a new twist in the row between Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and his sisters Sabia Sultan and Saleha Sultan over Flag Staff House. The sisters, who claim 25 per cent share in the property, had been denied entry into the bungalow after 2003 following this is litigation started between them. The case was highlighted in the newspapers when Sabia Sultan came to Bhopal from Hyderabad and deposed in camera in a special court here. What transpired in the hearing could not be known but now Pataudi's lawyer Akhtar Sayeed Khan told a different tale to Central Chronicle. He admitted that no doubt Pataudi's two sisters Sabia Sultan and Saleha Sultan are the co-owners of the property in question. But even then Pataudi has the right to deny his sisters entry into Flag House since he has got its possession as a tenant. Khan disclosed the Pataudi's mother the late Nawab Sajida Sultan had given away the property on Rs 2,000 per month rent in her lifetime. He said that Pataudi has not usurped anybody's right since he has possession of the palace as a tenant too apart from being its 50 per cent owner. In his capacity as a tenant he can permit or refuse entry to any person, Khan quipped. According to knowledgeable persons, this is clever ploy to deny entry to the sisters on the strength of possession even while accepting their ownership rights. Sources have alleged that the Flag House, the last vestige of the Nawab era, has been sold out to a city-based builder and developer whose office is situated near Moti Masjid. If the news is correct then it means that Nawab of Pataudi has no property left in his possession in Bhopal now. Till 1998, the Nawab had 23 properties in his possession which included Ahmadabad Palace, Noor-us-Sabah, Flag House, Cottage No 1, 12 Quarters, Dar-us-Salam, Bungalow of Habib, Cottage No 9, 4 Quarters, Motor Garage, Workshop, New Colony Quarters, Bungalow No 1 New Colony, Dairy farm quarters, Servant Quarter Khanugaon, Farrash Khana, Forest Store, Palace Sub-Post Office, rooms near dispensary, police guard room, police quarters, engineering store, government dispensary and government school. But by 2002, the Nawab disposed of all but one property that is Flag House. The same year Pataudi wrote a letter to Sabia Sultan that she must not stay at the Flag House without intimating him since it was his sole residence in Bhopal. In 2003, the doors of the flag house were completely shut on the two sisters. Since then the siblings are in constant litigation. The sprawling castle-like structure in Koh-e-Fiza was built especially by the Nawabs to lodge and entertain the visiting Englishmen during the British rule. The bungalow was look after by a specially raised paramilitary staff well versed in English and British culture and etiquette. The seven-acre bungalow, which now costs over Rs 15 crore, was later used to house the Nawab's ADC after independence. When Nawab Pataudi took over reins from his mother Nawab Sajida Sultan, he developed it as his own residence. For some years it also housed the office of Sarf-e-Khas which looks after the property matters of the Nawab. Now this office has been shifted to Qasr-e-Sultani. The phone connection of Sarf-e-Khas bas been withdrawn and only a skeleton staff is doing duty. The Flag House has not been whitewashed for quite some time and looks to be unkempt from outside with tall grass growing in the lawns indicating that the property is awaiting its fate __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com