DNA

Mumbai, Aug 9: Sixty years after Mohammed Ali Jinnah left for Pakistan, his only child, Dina Wadia, is staking her claim –for the second time – on the contentious Jinnah House, which nestles in Malabar Hill.

Wadia, 87, who resides in New York, filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court on July 31, claiming to be Jinnah’s sole legal heir and thus entitled to his property. She has labelled the government’s move to declare Jinnah House an ‘evacuee property’ as illegal.

She said the decision was based on the wrong premise that Jinnah had bequeathed the property to his sister Fatima, who was declared an evacuee after she left for Pakistan in 1947.

In 1994, Wadia filed her first petition in the high court but withdrew it after she learnt that her aunt, Fatima, had staked a claim on the property, saying it was willed to her.

Fatima had stated that she and Liyakat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first prime minister and a friend of Jinnah, were the executors and trustees of Jinnah’s will.

However, Wadia now contends that Jinnah’s will was never probated (endorsed by a judicial certificate as genuine) and, therefore, has no legal standing in India.

The petition states that since Jinnah was a Khoja Shia and thus governed by the Hindu Law in the matters of succession and inheritance, Wadia is his sole legal heir. Dina Wadia is entitled to all of Jinnah's properties even according to the Shia Muslim law. Jinnah's sprawling bungalow, where he resided till he left India in 1947, is a subject of a dispute between the governments of India and Pakistan.

Wadia, who married Bombay Dyeing group founder Neville Wadia in 1938 remained in India after the Partition and was never declared an evacuee. In 1962, she moved to the US after separating from her husband.

Wadia's latest petition was filed after she learnt that the government was planning to convert her father's house into the South Asia Centre for Arts and Culture.

Her lawyer, Fali Nariman, on Tuesday sought an interim stay on SACAC's inauguration, which was apparently scheduled on August 15.

However, the Centre's lawyers MI Sethna and Advait Sethna pointed out that no such event was planned on that date. Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice DY Chandrachud have asked the Centre to file a reply in two weeks.

The troubled history of the house of a nation’s architect

Nestled in the lush green environs of Malabar Hill, the calm surroundings of the Jinnah House belies its troubled legacy. Mohammed Ali Jinnah lived in this house till he left for Pakistan in 1947.

His only daughter, Dina Wadia, was born in this bungalow on August 15, 1919. She has now moved the Bombay High Court to stake her claim on the bungalow, which is a bitter point between the governments of India and Pakistan.

However, today the unkempt bungalow with its moss-covered walls and overgrown garden is no reflection on the stately edifice that once hosted the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

The historic European-style building designed by architect Claude Batley was the venue for the watershed talks on the Partition of India in September 1944 between Jinnah and Gandhi. It was partially here that Jinnah and Nehru altered the course of India’s history.

Jinnah moved to Pakistan in March 1947 and died in September 1948 without fulfiling his wish to return to his Mumbai house to spend his last days. Dina married textile tsar Neville Wadia against her father’s wishes and stayed in India after Partition.

Jinnah House, which was originally called South Court, was taken over by the government and declared evacuee property in 1949.

Later it was allotted to the British High Commission which moved out in 1981. Since then, Pakistan has sought claim on Jinnah House to use it as its Consulate.