SC surprised at 60-year-old Salar Jung family succession suit

New Delhi, Jan 25 : The Supreme Court on Monday was taken by surprise after it came across the pendency of a succession suit filed in 1958 in connection with the division of property of the erstwhile Hyderabad princely state’s Prime Minister, Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan Salar Jung III, who died on March 2, 1949.
Salar Jung was the Prime Minister in 1938 and died leaving behind his widow and daughter as Class 1 legal heirs to properties of nearly Rs 10,000 crore. The heirs have fought a legal fight for three generations, but justice still eludes them.
Salar Jung’s daughter Zainab Begum filed several cases trying to prove herself his successor but died without justice in 1972. Zainab’s daughter Munnirunissa Begum continued the legal battle — till no avail — till her death in January 2009.
Her husband Syed Zahid Ali, her son and two daughters filed a plea in the Supreme Court, through advocate Piyush Dwivedi, to pursue the matter of succession to the Salar Jung estate.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian acknowledged the gravity of the matter which has been pending for over 60 years.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Ali, submitted that his client was married to the direct descendant of Salar Jung, and properties were divided without making his family a party.