The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed a Chandigarh court order that granted 33.33% share of erstwhile Faridkot ruler Harinder Singh Brar’s ₹40,000-crore estate to Amrinder Singh, grandson of the ruler’s brother Kanwar Manjit Inder Singh.
The Chandigarh court order on August 14 had come on the execution petition from Amrinder, filed after the Supreme Court judgment of September 2022, wherein the apex court had upheld an order of the Punjab and Haryana high court, distributing the royal property among legal heirs — the ruler’s daughters and brother’s descendants. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The HC bench presided over by justice Deepak Gupta acted on the plea from Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, one of the daughters of late maharaja.
The Chandigarh court order on August 14 had come on the execution petition from Amrinder, filed after the Supreme Court judgment of September 2022, wherein the apex court had upheld an order of the Punjab and Haryana high court, distributing the royal property among legal heirs — the ruler’s daughters and brother’s descendants.
The properties include Raj Mahal in Faridkot, spread over 14 acres; Qila Mubarak in Faridkot; Faridkot House, located on prime land on Copernicus Marg, New Delhi; a plot in Sector 17, Chandigarh; and a fort at Manimajra. Several other properties of the king are located all over the country.
The share of Raja Harinder Singh Brar originally went to his four legal heirs — Maharani Mohinder Kaur (Brar’s mother), and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Maharani Deepinder Kaur and Rajkumari Maheep Inder Kaur (daughters). On June 1, 2020, the high court held that late Manjit Inder Singh, father of Amrinder Singh, will inherit the proportionate share of late Maharani Mohinder Kaur on the basis of her registered will, dated March 29, 1990. Rajkumari Maheep Inder Kaur died single and without a legal will in 2001, there remained ambiguity regarding succession of her share, resulting in a dispute.
The Chandigarh court in its August 14 order had said that it was clear that the share of Rajkumari Maheep Inder Kaur will first go back to her father, and from there to his legal heirs — Mohinder Kaur (mother), Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur — in equal share. Thus, the ruler’s ₹40,000-crore estate will be redistributed equally, to Amrit Kaur, Deepinder Kaur and Amrinder Singh (legal heir of Mohinder) to one-third (33.33%) each.
Tracing the dispute
Crowned maharaja at the age of three in 1918, Harinder Singh Brar was the last ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Faridkot. Brar and his wife, Narinder Kaur, had three daughters and a son.
However, his son died in 1981. In his will dated June 1, 1982, Brar vested the care of his property with Maharawal Khewaji Trust, with daughters Deepinder and Maheep Inder as its chairman and vice-chairman, respectively.
Following Brar’s death in 1989, his third daughter, Amrit Kaur, who was disinherited for marrying against his wishes, challenged the will before a Chandigarh court in 1992, questioning its authenticity. The court, in 2013, declared the will illegal, non-existent and void. In June 2020, the high court upheld the Chandigarh court’s decision, while also granting a share to the descendants of the king’s brother, a decision further upheld by the Supreme Court in September 2022.
The petition in high court now has been filed by Amrit Kaur arguing that her share in property in dispute has been reduced to 33.33% from the earlier share of 37.5%. Her argument is that at the time of death of Maheep Inder Kaur in 2001, surviving legal heirs of the ruler were the petitioner and Deepinder Kaur and that only they will be entitled to inherit the estate of Maheep Inder Kaur. The court while seeking response by October 31 has stayed operation of Chandigarh court’s decision of August 14.