Wadia to replace mother in plea for Jinnah House
The industrialist relied on his mother's will dated April 16, 2009, where he was appointed as the executor.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court (HC) has allowed Nusli Neville Wadia, Wadia Group chairperson, to replace his late mother Dina Wadia as a petitioner in a case she had filed to claim ownership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s house here in the city. Though the Union government had opposed Nusli Wadia’s plea, the division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai on Wednesday allowed the application filed by the industrialist.
The industrialist relied on his mother’s will dated April 16, 2009, where he was appointed as the executor. The Union government’s counsel, Adwait Sethna, opposed the application, arguing that Wadia had not obtained probate of the will so he could not substitute his mother in the case.
In its order, the high court had said it is keeping this issue open, and that it can be raised at the time of the hearing of the main petition about Jinnah House’s ownership. For now, it was allowing Nusli Wadia to be substituted as the petitioner.
Jinnah House, a bungalow in Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, was built by Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and has been at the centre of a prolonged legal battle between Jinnah’s daughter Dina Wadia and the Indian government.
In August 2007, Dina Wadia had approached the high court claiming that since she was the sole legal heir of Jinnah, she should get the possession of the house. After she passed away on November 2, 2017 in New York, Nusli Wadia sought to replace her. She was the only child of Jinnah and his Parsi wife Rattanbai Petit.