Nizam’s great-granddaughter claims share
Granddaughter says Moazzam Jah was deprived of rightful inheritance, mulls legal action
Princess Shafiya Sakina, great-granddaughter of last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, has urged the Govern-ment of India to provide her and her sister their legitimate share in the properties of the last Nizam.
She is the daughter of princess Fatima Fauzia who is the daughter of Prince Moazzam Jah Bahadur, the younger son of the Nizam VII, Mir Osman Ali Khan.
Addressing the media, the titular princess said she was contemplating filing a partition suit seeking her legitimate share in all the properties mentioned in the blue book. She urged the centre represented by the Union finance secretary, who is ex-officio chairman of the H.E.H. the Nizam’s Trust and other related trusts, to take action to protect her rights on the $335 million fund, which belonged to the late Nizam in NatWest Bank London.
Princess Shafiya challenged the action of the last Nizam assigning the the London Fund to President of India during pendency of the case and the action of princes Mukarram Jah Bahadur (Mir Barkat Ali Khan) and Muffakham Jah Bahadur (Mir Karamat Ali Khan), grandsons of Mir Osman Ali Khan claiming 50:50 share of Hillview and Shannon respectively. She maintained that this action is illegal and void under rule lis pendens (pending suit).
The Nizam’s great granddaughter claimed that the princes who are the sons of Prince Azam Jah, the eldest son of the last Nizam, had misled the Royal Court of London by concealing the name of Prince Moazzam Jah, the second son of Mir Osman Ali Khan and the father of princess Fatima. They also concealed the names of other named beneficiaries.
The princess said she as the eldest daughter of princess Fatima Fauzia, the eldest daughter of Prince Moazzam Jah, had rights on the amount.
She pointed out that under a Nizam Trust Deeds (Validation) Act 1950, 28 Trust Deeds have been validated and they have the force of law. Under them, only the named beneficiaries in the deeds would get income though the corpus funds belonging to the issues of the named beneficiaries. She said earlier, the Nizam’s jewellery was acquired by the Government of India for `218 crore.
In this, the shares of her grandfather Prince Moazzam Jah, Princess Ahmedunnisa Begum, aka Shahzadi Pasha, the daughter of last Nizam, and Prince Basalath Jah (half-share holder), the step brother of last Nizam, were, cumulatively, `95 crore.
Princess Shafiya explained that after the death of Shahzadi Pasha in 1985, her share had gone to her only blood brother Moazzam Jah, who was alive at that time, while Azam Jah Bahadur, another blood brother, had expired in 1970. Basalath Jah was issueless. Thus, the `95 crore corpus fund should have been divided among all his issues, including her. Instead, Mukarram Jah, Prince Moazzam Jah, Mufakkham Jah, Princess Esra (divorced wife of Mukarram Jah), Asif Pasha and various other beneficiaries, who are not issues of Moazzam Jah, distributed the fund among themselves by a compromise deed done on June 25, 2002, and she had been deprived of her genuine share. She claimed that she was also deprived of her share in two granddaughter’s wedding gift trust deed on September 4, 1951, when minor.
She alleged that while other legal heirs of Mir Osman Ali Khan were getting their shares of the properties of her great grandfather and funds deposited under various trusts, she has not got a single penny. Being one of the shareholders of all the palaces of her great grandfather and grandfather Moazzam Jah Bahadur, the second son of Mir Osman Ali Khan, she should reside in the palace. But Prince Mukarram Jah Bahadur, Prince Muffakham Jah Bahadur, Princess Esra, Asif Pasha and other trustees deprived her as well of her housing rights, the Princess stated, seeking the intervention of the government of India. she was a