Govt has acquired bungalow

Ebrahim has staked his claim based on Jinnah's disputed will dated May 30, 1939, in which the founder of Pakistan bequeathed the house to his sister Fatima. But for the last three years, since Dina began the legal battle, her solicitor Shrikant Doijode and counsel Fali Nariman have been denying the existence of any such will. The government, too, has not produced the original will, but has been relying on some books documenting it.He joined the legal battle only in 2008 well after Dina began her fight to claim ownership of the bungalow as Jinnah's "sole legal heir''.
Ebrahim's contention is that on Fatima's death, the house, according to Muslim law, went to her sister, Shirinbai. On her death, the property went to the children of her pre-deceased sister Mariam. Mariam's daughter Ashraf Rajabally Ebrahim, who had a stake in the house, is the mother of the current petitioner Ebrahim, who is claiming a one-sixth share. There is also a dispute over whether Ashraf left a will or died without one.
Agreeing that Jinnah left a will, but refuting Ebrahim's legal contention as being misconceived, the MEA's affidavit states that once a property is acquired under Section 12 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act of 1954, the evacuee's rights over the property are extinguished, and the evacuee is, if anything, only entitled to compensation. "The property vests absolutely with the central government. There is no residuary right or right of reversion in favour of either the evacuee, or the evacuees heirs,'' says the affidavit.
The Jinnah house was sold, after acquisition, by the ministry of rehabilitation to the ministry of works & housing, for Rs 8.47 lakh. The proceeds form part of the compensation pool. The MEA said the heirs have no reversionary rights even on the proceeds. Fatima was an evacuee as she left India for Pakistan, and in June 1949, the government notified Jinnah House as evacuee property. "By a notification dated June 10, 1955, issued under Section 12 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation & Rehabilitation) Act 1954, the property came to vest with the Union of India,'' said the MEA which stressed the Centre has absolute legal ownership of Jinnah House.