Delhi HC imposes ₹1 lakh costs on man who claimed to inherit western UP, Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed with ₹1 lakh costs an appeal filed by a man who claimed to hold the property rights over hundreds of kilometres in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gurugram and Uttarakhand, saying if he was indeed the son of the ruler as claimed, he had woken up more than seven decades late.

“The grievance arose in 1947…. Isn’t it too late in the day to contest this? This is 1947 and we are in 2024. Many years have gone by. Whether you’re the raja or not, we don’t know. You can’t complain today that you’ve been deprived in 1947. We cannot help you with this now. This is too late in the day,” a bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said, rejecting the petition.

The petitioner, who identified himself as Kunwar Mahender Dhwaj Prasad Singh, said he was the ruler of Beswan Avibhajya Rajya. which consists of the United Province of Agra running between river Yamuna and Ganga from Agra to Meerut, Aligarh, and Bulandshahr including, 65 revenue estates of Delhi, Gurgugram and Uttarakhand.

Singh said his family did not sign an accession agreement with the union government and continues to hold ownership rights over the territory, and asked the high court to restore his property and get the Centre to sign a treaty with him.

“You say you own the entire area between Yamuna and Ganga. On what basis you’re coming? After 75 years you have woken up?….” the bench told Singh, who had appealed against the December 18, 2023 order by justice Subramonium Prasad.

Justice Prasad in his December order imposed a ₹10,000 costs on the petitioner which the order said, should be deposited in the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund.

In a detailed verdict, justice Prasad ruled that the reliefs sought by the petitioner were completely misconceived and exceedingly vague and that the petitioner was neither able to establish the fact of the area being under Beswan family’s control nor his rights. The petitioner had only filed certain maps which do not even indicate the existence of the Beswan family.

Besides, the high court underlined that questions of title could be decided only in civil court and not in writ court.