Pataudi Family's Petition: HC Notice to Bhopal Officials

Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the concerned authorities on a petition by actress Sharmila Tagore and her family members demanding access to their 96-acre land in Bhopal after the construction of a footpath with railings which is blocking the route.

The notices were issued by the division bench of Chief Justice S A Bobade and Justice Rajendra Menon yesterday to Bhopal Collector, Lake Conservation Authority and Housing and Environment Department on a petition filed by Sharmila Tagore, her son Saif Ali Khan and daughter Soha Ali Khan.

The petitioners alleged that following the construction of a VIP road and the footpath with railings by the concerned authorities, access to their ancestral land situated alongside the road and facing Bhopal's picturesque Upper Lake was blocked.

The land was registered in the name of Begum Sajida Sultan, mother of late Mansoor Ali Khan, famously known as Nawab Pataudi, in the revenue records.

After the death of Pataudi, his wife Sharmila and other family members were contesting the case.

Sharmila's advocate Rajesh Pancholi said the bench has ordered the concerned authorities to reply to the notice within two weeks.

Earlier also, the family had filed a petition in the High Court demanding compensation for constructing VIP road on their land without legally acquiring it following which the court directed the Collector to file a report in the matter.

However, the Collector has not yet given its report in the matter, Pancholi claimed.