In Brief
This case concerns a perpetual leasehold property in Allahabad held by the Maharaja of Maihar. The appellants claimed it was joint family property that descended under normal Hindu law, while the respondents argued it was the Maharaja's personal impartible estate. The Supreme Court held the property was part of the Maharaja's impartible sovereign estate governed by the rule of primogeniture, not coparcenary family property. Although ancestral, such impartible estates carry the character of self-acquired property—the ruler could bequeath or alienate it freely. The Court affirmed that the rule of primogeniture and impartibility applicable to erstwhile Rulers persisted even after India's independence and merger of princely states, protected by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. Appeals were dismissed.
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