The Indian government is faced with yet another challenge to its claim over the sprawling Malabar Hill bungalow, Jinnah House, built by Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Jinnah’s grand-nephew has filed a plea in HC staking claim on property
MUMBAI: The Indian government is faced with yet another challenge to its claim over the sprawling Malabar Hill bungalow, Jinnah House, built by Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Napean Sea Road resident, Mohamed Rajabally Ebrahim,72, who is Jinnah’s grand-nephew, has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court stating the government has “no right to squat” over Jinnah House after the repeal of the Displaced Persons (DP) Act in 2005.
According to Ebrahim’s lawyer, Yusuf Muchhala, the bungalow was acquired by the government in June 1955 under the DP Act 1954 for the public purpose of rehabilitating and compensating persons displaced during Partition. However, since then, Jinnah House has not been allotted to any displaced persons and has not been used for the purpose of rehabilitation of displaced persons.
In 2005, the DP Act was repealed by the government stating that major works of claims compensation and rehabilitation had been completed. “Therefore, upon repeal of DP Act, the object of acquisition of Jinnah House remaining unfulfilled, it must revert to the lawful descendants of Fatima [Jinnah’s sister],” Ebrahim’s petition states. It maintains that after the 2005 repeal, “the possession, control and management of Jinnah House by the government are without authority.”
Ebrahim’s petition is in addition to the claim made by his aunt Dina Wadia, Jinnah’s only daughter. Wadia, 89, who resides in New York, filed a petition in the HC staking claim to the bungalow as Jinnah’s sole legal heir and denying that Jinnah had willed the property to his sister Fatima.
Refuting Wadia’s claim, Ebrahim has also filed an application to intervene in Wadia’s petition. The intervention was allowed by the HC on Friday.
According to Ebrahim’s petition, Jinnah, who had one brother and four sisters, willed his property to his sister Fatima, who moved to Pakistan. After Jinnah’s death in 1948, Fatima sent a telegram to then chief minister of Bombay, BG Kher, on Decmber 6, 1948, informing him that the bungalow had been bequeathed to her.
Subsequently, on June 27, 1949, Jinnah House was notified as an evacuee property.
The DP was enacted in 1954. In 1955, Jinnah House was acquired by the government under the DP Act for the public purpose of rehabilitation and compensation of displaced persons. Ebrahim maintains that residual rights of the evacuee (Fatima) to reversion or to claim compensation were not annihilated.
In January 2008, Ebrahim came to know that the Centre had repealed the DP Act in 2005.He wrote to the Centre and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing out that “Upon the repeal of the DP Act the Centre or any other instrumentality of the government has no authority to squat on Jinnah House” and it should handed over to lawful descendants of Fatima. He has not received a reply from the government.
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