Maharaja Dr Karni Singh’s heirs moved the Delhi High Court seeking rental arrears from the Central government for Bikaner House located in the national capital between 1991 and 2014.
The heirs claimed that under a 1951 agreement, the government had been paying rent but ceased payments after the Maharaja’s demise in 1988.
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela heard the appeal by the “Estate of late Maharaja Dr Karni Singh” against a single judge’s decision refusing to grant any relief to the heirs and asked the appellant and the Centre to place on record certain documents in relation to the premises.
Posting the hearing in July, the bench asked the appellant to serve a copy of the plea to the Rajasthan counsel to appear on the next date.
On February 24, the single judge ruled the Rajasthan government “undisputedly” held the “full and absolute rights” over Bikaner House and the Maharaja’s heirs, who sought payment from 1991 to 2014, failed to establish any legal right over the property and any claim to “arrears of rent” from the Centre.
The division bench said the initial payment by the Centre to the Maharaja was on an ex-gratia basis and asked if the legal heirs were entitled to stake any claim over it after the death of the ruler.
The court further asked the appellant’s counsel on the issue of maintainability of the petition before the single judge and the time period within which such a plea could be filed saying it could not be an endless exercise.
The counsel argued that the Centre never denied payment to heirs who were entitled to the ex-gratia payment and that there was no dispute between the heirs. “They kept saying I will pay. There is no denial of duty to pay,” he said.
The single judge decided the case without considering the material, the counsel added.
The heirs, while seeking arrears from 1991 to 2014, have argued that when Bikaner House — developed by the predecessor to Dr Karni Singh between 1922 and 1949 — was taken over, a communication was sent by the Government of India in 1951 that one-third rent from the property would be released to the Maharaja’s Estate.
However, they said, the Centre stopped the payments post Singh’s death in 1991.
The single judge ruled the Centre’s payment was on ex-gratia basis which couldn’t be claimed as an entitlement, and the Centre vacated the property in 2014 after an order of the Supreme Court on a suit by the state of Rajasthan for the possession of Bikaner House.
Bikaner House, built in 1922, has been at the center of legal disputes post-independence. The SC granted its possession to Rajasthan in ‘14.
A Delhi trial court ordered its attachment in ‘24 over unpaid arbitral dues but later put the order on hold.
