Battle royal on cards for the riches

Rajmatha Gayatri DeviS Rs 1000 cr properties at stake

The Jaipur Royals are waging a fierce legal battle over the properties left by the late Rajmatha Gayatri Devi even as her second death anniversary is approaching,
Rajmatha’s stepson has challenged the will bequeathing the properties to her grandson and there seems to be no end in sight for the royal battle for inheritance.

Soon after the death of Gayatri Devi in July 29,  2009, her will was made known and she had bequeathed her entire property to Devraj and Lalitya, born to the estranged Thai princess to her only son late Jagat Singh. The properties included Jai Mahal Palace, a 300-year-old palace converted into a five star hotel, Moti Dungri Palace and shares in the Rambagh Palace Hotel.

The latest round of the legal battle is between her two grandchildren — Devraj Singh and Lalitya Kumari — and their step-uncle Prithviraj Singh along with Urveshi Kumari, daughter of his only sister Prem Kumari over the ‘will’ left  by Gayatri Devi. Only last month, Urveshi had filed a petition in the district and sessions court challenging the will making Devraj Singh and Lalitya legal heirs of the Rajmatha’s  property, which runs into over Rs 1,000 crore.  Devraj Singh and Lalitya Kumari had approached the court seeking succession certificate on the basis of Gayatri Devi’s will, which was made in November 2008.

After the death of their grandmother, Devraj and Lalitya, who were settled in Thailand, shifted to Jaipur to look after these properties. They are now based at Lily Pool.
Around the same time, Prithviraj Singh had served a legal notice on his brother and sister to vacate the Lily Pool, where Gayatri Devi lived till her death, as it was a part of the Rambagh Palace Hotel.

The dispute is mainly over Lily  Pool, the French style bungalow, which is now worth crores where Rajmata used to live and other valuable antiques that she is believed to have collected.

Lily Pool is located on the vast premises of the Rambagh palace, which is now converted in to a five-star heritage hotel. But Devraj and Lalitya maintained that Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II, the last ruler of Jaipur, had gifted the place to his wife, the Rajmata, during his life time itself and it belonged to them according to the will. However, Prithvi Singh’s argument is that “Rambagh is the owner of Lily Pool and Rajmata was just a tenant and as a tenant Devraj and Lalitya have no rights over anything there”.

Urveshi, in her petition, challenged the will of Gayatri Devi on two counts. One, when the will was made she was ill and therefore not in a sound state. And two, Jagat Singh, a child adopted by the royal family of Israda, a tiny erstwhile state near Jaipur, could not claim the share in the property of the royal family. The matter is now in the Rajasthan High Court.

But Devraj and Lalitya claimed that their grandmother was fit and fine at the time of making her will and their father Jagat Singh was never adopted by Israda royal family. They also said that at the time of making the will, Prithviraj, who was then close to
Gayatri Devi, was present and had agreed to the contents.

They alleged that Prithviraj Singh had fraudulently transferred shares of their father in the Rambagh hotel to his name. The matter in this regard was pending before the Company Law Board.

In a new twist to the ongoing family feud, the Rambagh Palace Hotel Private Limited, a Taj group hotel, became a party in the dispute claiming ownership over the former maharani’s residence, Lily Pool.

In a possession suit in a lower court, the hotel claimed that Lily Pool was part of the hotel and Gayatri Devi resided there under a licence deed executed on January 21, 1978. The hotel claimed that she used to pay Rs 3,000 per month till her death
towards “use and occupation charges” to sub­st­an­tiate the point that she did not own the property. Based on the possession suit, the lower court has restrained Devraj from selling, transferring or mortgaging the disputed property.

The hotel management alleged that Devraj and and Lalitya were occupying Lily Pool as “trespassers” with the intention to sell it off. “We have information that Devraj has been showing Lilly Pool to various property dealers and agents to sell of the property and demand a stay on any transactions”.   

Amid all in this royal family feud, Devraj had the support of only one man, his uncle, Brigadier Bhawani Singh who is his father's eldest step brother and former Maharaja of Jaipur. With his death recently, the Rajmata's grandchildren may find themselves alone and a long fight is on the cards.