Wadia can’t claim Jinnah House: Govt

The Government of India in an affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court on Thursday opposed a petition by Dina Wadia...

The Government of India in an affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court on Thursday opposed a petition by Dina Wadia, daughter of Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to gain possession of Jinnah House, which her father built in 1936 in the upmarket Malabar Hill area of South Mumbai.

Wadia’s fresh petition has been termed by the Government as not maintainable as the property was acquired by it under the Evacuee Property Act and she is neither an evacuee nor entitled to the property. “As per Jinnah’s will, his sister was entitled to the property. But she (Jinnah’s sister) was declared an evacuee and given a property in Pakistan,” Additional Solicitor General Rajendra Raghuvanshi said.

“Wadia is not an evacuee and she is not entitled to the property,” Raghuvanshi added.

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The affidavit further states that Jinnah himself wanted to lease out the property and now the Government of India has decided to convert the house into a SAARC cultural centre. The petition is motivated by media reports regarding the conversion of the house into a cultural centre, the affidavit said.

Eighty-eight-year-old Wadia, mother of textile magnate Nusli Wadia of the Bombay Dyeing Group, has urged in her petition that the title of the house be handed over to her as she is the only heir of Jinnah.

According to Wadia, the (then) state of Bombay took over the property, because Jinnah’s sister Fatima was the trustee of Jinnah’s will, and had been declared an evacuee (those who migrated to Pakistan post-partition) in 1949.

However, Wadia has contended that her father’s will was not probated by the Bombay High Court and therefore had no effect on any operation of law. Fatima, therefore, could not be the legal owner and so the house should be handed over to his legal heir, Wadia said in the petition.

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The property, said to be worth hundreds of crores, was let out to the British Deputy High Commission in 1949 by the state government. The house was acquired by the Union of India in 1955.

The British Deputy High Commission moved out of the house in 1982 and a claim was made by the Pakistani Government that the structure be handed over to them as it is of “sentimental value”.

The house has been lying vacant ever since and was handed over to the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 1997.