A petition has been filed in the High Court of Delhi that urges the setting aside of the single-judge bench order which estimated Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie's ancestral property market value at Rs 130 crores.
As per the single bench Delhi HC Order dated Dec 24, 2019, the estimated market price of property ad-measuring 5373 square yards in Civil lines, which is the ancestral property of Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie, is Rs 130 crores.
The market value of 4, Flagstaff Road, Civil Lines, which is adjacent to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's residence, was determined by the bench while hearing a 50-year-old legal battle between Salman Rushdie's father Anis Rushdie, & Congress leader Bhikhu Ram Jain.
Jain's sons Narender Jain and Arvind Jain filed an application seeking to set aside the order along with all the findings & observations contained therein to determine the market price of the suit property in terms of the Supreme Court order dated Dec 3, 2012, & direct the respondent to execute the sale deed in favour of the appellants.
A Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi & Rekha Palli adjourned the matter for further hearing in April. The petitioner was represented by senior advocate Dushyant Dave.
In the appeal filed through Lawyer Rahul Malhotra, the petitioner said that the earlier order passed is "non-est, bad in law & passed blatant transgression of the directions passed by the Supreme Court & untenable on facts & in law".
The petitioner said that the court had failed to appreciate that the actual defendants Narender Jain and Arvind Jain, being the Legal Heir (LRs) of the original sole defendant, are required to be served with a notice in the suit proceedings so as to bring to their knowledge the existence of present petition & avoid multiplicity of proceedings which may be initiated in future in respect of the suit property.
It also raised that the trial judge has failed to appreciate that it is imperative upon a Court to ensure that the parties appearing before it are the actual parties to the petition & proxy litigation is not being pursued by some third party with/without knowledge of the original party to the plea.
The 2012 judgement had come on a suit pending since 1977, seeking specific performance of an Agreement to Sell dated December 22, 1970, by the deceased defendant Anis Ahmed Rushdie, father of Salman Rushdie with deceased plaintiff & Congress leader Bhiku Ram Jain, of the property for a total sale consideration of Rs 3.75 lakhs.
Out of the proposed amount, Jain had paid a sum of Rs 50,000 to Anis Ahmed Rushdie. During the pendency of proceedings, Bhikhu & Anis Rushdie, both expired & their heirs have also been substituted.
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