Bombay High Court ends 76-yr-old Pune property row, orders partition of land among heirs of landowner

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has drawn the curtain on a 76-year-old property dispute by ordering partition of a one-acre land in Pune among the heirs of the original landowner.

A single bench of Justice Farhan Dubash, in the judgment passed last month, disposed of petitions filed in February 1950 by the heirs of landowner M M H Janmohammed, seeking partition and their shares in the properties.

The court ordered the partition of the remaining nearly one acre (4,271 sqm) of land in Yerawada among his heirs.

The properties left behind by Janmohammed included two large plots - one on Deccan College Road and the other at Yerwada in Pune.

In March 1950, a preliminary partition was declared. The Maharashtra government then acquired the Deccan College Road plot and the compensation was divided among the legal heirs.

The dispute over a 16-acre plot in Yerwada persisted as several other persons, including the heirs of a manager appointed by the landowner during his lifetime, claimed rights over the property, asserting the land had been given in lieu of debts.

In 1955, the heirs arrived at a compromise settlement. But, a one-acre land remained under dispute, which the high court on February 27 this year directed to be partitioned among the legal heirs of Janmohammed.