(Image source from: Instagram.com/actorsaifalikhan)
Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, whose grandfather was Iftikhar Ali Khan, the final king of the old Pataudi state in Haryana, may lose a big part of his family history because a lower court's choice that made him and his close family the only owners of land worth Rs 15,000 crore in Bhopal and nearby has been changed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. These things include the Noor-Us-Sabah Palace, which is now a fancy hotel, and Flagstaff House in the city, along with many royal palaces, houses, and other lands across the state. The actor must now fight in court to keep those lands and his family history; the High Court told the lower court to look at the case again and make a new choice within a year. But, this is not the only problem for the actor, who had a bad time in 2025 after being attacked in January during a break-in; he also needs to argue against the government's decision to call the lands 'enemy' property.
At 54, Khan is the great-grandson of Hamidullah Khan, who was the last Nawab of Bhopal. Sajida Sultan, his grandmother, is Hamidullah Khan's second daughter. The Nawab's oldest daughter, Abida Sultan Begum, moved to Pakistan after the Partition - remember this detail, as we will talk about it again soon - while Sajida Sultan chose to stay in India, took over her father's job, and got her late father's private property. The government agreed to this inheritance in 1962 when a message from the Home Ministry showed they agreed to move the lands to her name. Sajida Sultan later married Iftikhar Ali Khan, Nawab of Pataudi, giving these lands to her son Mansoor Ali Khan and then to her grandson Saif Ali Khan.
In 2000, a lower court in Madhya Pradesh said that Saif and his family, which includes his mother Sharmila Tagore and his sisters Soha and Saba Ali Khan, were the rightful people to get the Bhopal estate. But, this decision was challenged by other family members of Hamidullah Khan, who said that the late Bhopal Nawab's wealth should be shared using Muslim Personal Law. Last week, the High Court agreed and opened the inheritance issue again. So, if the lower court takes back its earlier choice, Saif Ali Khan could lose a large part of his family's history from Hamidullah Khan and Sajida Sultan. At the same time, another big problem is coming up. In 2014, the government told Saif Ali Khan that the Enemy Property Act of 1968 would apply to the Rs 15,000 crore in lands inherited from the old ruler of Bhopal.
The announcement said that Hamidullah Khan’s eldest daughter, who would normally inherit everything, relinquished her rights as an Indian citizen when she went to Pakistan. Because of this, the assets were considered to be owned by the &039;enemy&039; and could be seized by the Indian government. The assets located in Bhopal were inherited by Saif Ali Khan through Hamidullah Khan’s younger daughter, Sajida Sultan, who became the primary heir after her sister relocated to Pakistan. In 1962, the government, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, agreed with this statement and declared that she was "the sole inheritor of all personal assets, both movable and immovable, held by Nawan Hamidullah... and there are no problems with these assets being passed on to Sajida Sultan Begum."
Even so, Saif Ali Khan questioned this statement in court and was granted a short-term pause on the situation. However, in December 2024, the High Court dismissed his request and lifted that pause, giving him and his family 30 days to make an appeal. This dismissal happened because the government reversed the 1968 rule about &039;enemy&039; assets "starting from a previous date" and created a review board, the Custodian of Enemy Property in Mumbai, to reexamine all related matters. This board overturned the 1962 announcement that recognized Sajida Sultan as the heir. It is uncertain if Saif Ali Khan filed the appeal on time, especially because he was stabbed on January 16, spent nearly a week in the hospital, and needed weeks to recover after surgery.
