A FEUDING ROYALTY

The Mewar royal family's dispute over ancestral properties in Udaipur has resurfaced a year after the death of its last 'custodian' King Arvind Singh. The Delhi High Court is set to rule on the matter that has spanned four decades and countless strained filial relationships

- ROHIT PARIHAR

In the opulent halls of Udaipur's City Palace, where the voices of Mahar-anas past echo alongside the rustle of silk draperies and clang of medieval crockery, a modern-day saga of legacy and litigation is unfolding.

Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, the 41-year-old scion of the Mewar dynasty, finds himself engaged in a bitter legal battle with his own sisters over the will of their late father, Arvind Singh—a dispute that threatens to further fracture not just a family, but one of Rajasthan’s most storied and economically important royal estates.

What began as a challenge to the will has escalated into a multi-court confrontation spanning decades of unresolved inheritance claims between two dead rulers, Arvind Singh and his elder brother Mahendra Singh. The former's will, written weeks before his death in March last year, names his son, the social media-savvy Lakshyaraj, as the sole heir to the royal properties. This includes controlling stakes in temples like Eklingji and popular heritage properties like the Lake Palace, Fateh Prakash Palace and Shiv Niwas Palace. His sisters, Padmaja Kumari Parmar and Bhargavi Kumari Mewar, have taken issue with the will, citing their father’s allegedly poor mental state towards the end of his life. On January 20, the Delhi High Court formally took charge of this meandering dispute on orders from the Supreme Court, noting the many pleas in the Mumbai and Jodhpur high courts.

Justice Subramonium Prasad of the Delhi high court has issued notices to the sisters as well as Arvind Singh’s wife, Vijayraj Kumari, and directed them to file replies to Lakshyaraj’s plea that the will be probated i.e. validated and executed. The court also ordered that no asset be alienated until further hearings, effectively freezing properties valued in Parmar's suit at Rs 1,200 crore, though independent valuations put it at 10 times more. The next hearing is scheduled for February 12.

ROCKY BEGINNINGS