The long legal battle between the grandchildren of the late Rajmata Gayatri Devi and her stepsons over the assets of Rajmata’s biological son, the late Maharaj Jagat Singh – mainly the luxurious Jai Mahal hotel – was finally settled on Wednesday. The South Carolina concluded that Jagat Singh executed his will in favour of his mother Gayatri Devi, who in turn obtained a joint succession certificate with her grandchildren Devraj and Lalitya from district judge (Jaipur) in 2009.
Advertisement
Gayatri Devi was one of the most celebrated beauties of the last century, mixing palace life in the royal city of Jaipur with private aircraft, cocktail parties and shopping trips to Harrods. As the company (Jai Mahal Hotels Pvt Ltd) rejected the claim, the DR group approached the CLB, New Delhi.
Devraj and Lalitya, who keeps visiting Jaipur, had moved the High Court saying their father Jagat Singh was the son of Gayatri Devi and Sawai Man Singh and held 99 per cent shares in the firm. “Even if the Will of Gayatri Devi is not taken into account for purposes of issue of rectification, the documents executed by Gayatri Devi clearly entitled the DR Group to have the rectification made”, the bench said. The apex court further acknowledged that Gayatri Devi also signed the transfer deeds and communicated the same to the companies’ board of directors before she died in September 2009.
According to them, she died intestate on September 29, 2009, and had been disinherited by Jagat Singh.
After the death of the Rajmata in July 2009, Lalitya and Devraj had been claiming that their grandmother willed her share from Jagat Singh’s properties as well as her other assets too in their favour.
The CLB refused to go into the merits of the case. The CLB dismissed the DR group’s appeal in March 2011, following which the matter reached the Delhi High Court that decided in favour of Devraj-Lalitya in December 2012.
Gayatri Devi’s death had sparked off a court battle over her fortune-including palaces that now operate as luxury hotels-which the local media estimated at between $200m (£130m) and $400m. Urvashi Devi filed a counter application disputing the succession certificate.
Advertisement
The High Court held that the succession certificate issued by the Court had to be taken as conclusive evidence under Section 381 of the Indian Succession Act. It held that the grandchildren had furnished the succession certificate as well as the transfer deed executed by Gayatri Devi in their favor.
