SC pauses retrial order in Pataudi property dispute

The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily halted a Madhya Pradesh high court order that would have restarted a decades-old legal fight over property worth about ₹15,000 crore, claimed by actor Saif Ali Khan, his mother Sharmila Tagore, and sisters Soha and Saba Ali Khan.

- Abraham Thomas

The property once belonged to Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal, who had three daughters — Abida, Sajida, and Rabia. Sajida married Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, becoming the Nawab Begum of Bhopal. When Abida migrated to Pakistan, Sajida inherited the parental property. After Sajida’s death, it passed to her son Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and from him to his children, including Saif.

In 2000, a trial court declared the Pataudi family the rightful owners, relying on a 1962 Government of India certificate naming Sajida Sultan as sole successor to all the Nawab's properties.