Govt: Heirs got no right to Jinnah House

MUMBAI: In the latest twist to the three-way fight over the palatial Jinnah House at Malabar Hill in Bombay HC, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Friday filed an affidavit stating that after the government acquired the bungalow built by Mohammed Ali Jinnah as evacuee property, all rights of the evacuee and others stood extinguished.
The Indian government, 91-year-old Dina Wadia-ho has staked claim as the sole heir to her father's bungalow on a 2.5-acre plot-nd Jinnah's grandnephew Mohammed Rajabally Ebrahim are all fighting over the prime property.
With the claim of Wadia, who lives in New York, and counter claims from Ebrahim and his family coming up for final hearing on November 15, the Centre through its counsel in Mumbai Vinod Joshi filed its latest 15-page affidavit. This is in response to Ebrahim's claim over one-sixth of the estate.
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 is 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.