Daughters win Faridkot royal inheritance battle

New Delhi, September 7

Ending a three-decade-old inheritance battle, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict awarding the majority share in the Rs 25,000-crore assets of erstwhile Faridkot Maharaja Harinder Singh Brar to his daughters Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur.

The assets under dispute included forts, palatial buildings, hundreds of acres of land, jewellery, vintage cars and a huge bank balance. “Since the submissions advanced on behalf of the appellants were dealt with by all three courts below extensively, we do not find any reason to upset the concurrent view taken by the courts below,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI UU Lalit said, dismissing the special leave petitions (SLPs) against the high court’s order. The protracted legal battle was between Maharwal Khewaji Trust, managing property of the Faridkot estate, and Maharaja’s daughter Amrit Kaur, who had in 1992 challenged the third ‘will’, said to have been executed in 1982 in favour of the trust. The trial court in 2013 declared the will as “null and void”, “non-existent” and “not binding” upon the rights of plaintiff Amrit Kaur and granted inheritance to the Maharaja’s daughters — Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur.

The high court upheld the trial court’s order in June 2020 and held that descendants of last ruler’s brother Manjit Inder Singh would get their mother Mohinder Kaur’s share in the royal property. However, acting on a petition filed by the trust challenging the high court’s order declaring the ‘will’ as ‘forged’, the top court had in August 2020 ordered status quo and had allowed the trust to continue as caretaker of the royal property.

The top court rejected the SLP filed by Bharat Inder Singh, son of Kanwar Manjit Inder Singh, who had contended that by Rule of Primogeniture, the properties left behind by the ruler must come in the hands of the male successor, namely Kunwar Manjit Inder Singh, followed by his son Bharat Inder Singh.

The top court said the trust shall be entitled to run the Charitable Hospital only up to September 30, 2022, whereafter all the aspects of management, finance and other control, including the need for appointment of a receiver, shall be subject to such orders as may be passed by the court executing the decree in the instant matters.