The story started back in 1932, when the Maharaja of Udaipur reportedly entrusted his minister as “benamidar” to buy a property in the Capital, known as the ‘Udaipur House’ — 15, Rajpur Road, Civil Lines.

The twist in the tale came in 1961. Thakur Manohar Singh, alias Major General Rao Manohar Singh of Bedla, home minister of the then state of Mewar moved court saying he, not the king, had bought the property for Rs 39,000.

Singh claimed he had subsequently mortgaged the property to the king, and was willing to re-possess it by paying Rs 1 lakh as mortgage.

The maharaja rebutted, saying the property belonged to the state of Mewar and, on Constitutional merger, to the state of Rajasthan.

The dispute was finally settled in favour of the state of Rajasthan by two decisions of the Delhi High Court — in 1973 and 1980. The Supreme Court later backed the High Court verdicts in 1983.

After Manohar Singh died in 1985, the story fast-forwarded itself 20 years, when his heirs found a house tax notice in February 2005. The notice was for payment of Rs 7,550 on Udaipur House.

This prompted the heirs to approach the MCD to “clear” all house tax dues against the property till March 31, 2004. After paying MCD Rs 49,070 Singh’s heirs revived the litigation and renewed the ownership claim.

On Tuesday, a Division Bench led by Justice T S Thakur observed that ownership rights cannot be had by “merely paying property tax”. “How can you consider a house tax demand note as proof for private ownership of this property (Udaipur House)?” the Bench asked.

The heirs told the court that MCD had mutated (transferred) the property to their names on May 26, 2005 after conducting “due verification”.

They also claimed to have got a letter from the Land Acquisition Department on July 1, 2005 requesting them to take “peaceful vacant possession of the property at 10.30 am on 4.7.2005”.

The date of transfer was postponed to July 6, 2005.

The transfer was “brought to an end” the following day, “after the Resident Commissioner of Rajasthan wrote a letter to Deputy Commissioner (North), pointing out that the property was that of the state,” senior counsel Valmiki Mehta, appearing for State of Rajasthan along with counsel J K Sharma, submitted in court.

The heirs have challenged orders of both the Resident Commissioner and the MCD.

The heirs’ counsel, Anis Suhrawardy, said: “Registered sale deed of the property is in the name of Thakur Manohar Singh of Bedla. Delhi revenue records till date shows it as his private property. It was a mistake made by the Maharaja, transferring Udaipur House from the personal list of properties to the state list at the time of the merger.”