Three years after the Supreme Court upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict awarding the majority share (37.5% each) in Rs 25,000-crore assets of the erstwhile Faridkot Maharaja Harinder Singh Brar to his daughters Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur, the over three-decade-old inheritance battle has landed back in the top court.
A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta has stayed further proceedings on the execution application filed by Amrinder Singh, one of the legal representatives (LRs) of Kanwar Manjit Inder Singh who was ordered to be given 25% share in the royal property.
“Until further orders, further proceedings in the execution case Nos. 521 of 2023 and 333 of 2025 pending before the Executing Court, shall remain stayed,” the Bench said in its August 29 order, posting the matter for hearing after four weeks.
The royal assets under dispute included forts, palatial buildings, hundreds of acres of land, jewellery, vintage cars and a huge bank balance.
While staying the execution application filed by Amrinder Singh Brar, the top court also stayed the execution plea of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur in 2025 as the executing court had tagged her plea along with the execution plea of Kanwar Manjit Inder Singh filed through his LR Kanwar Bharat Inder Singh through LR Kanwar Amrinder Singh Brar.
In view of the June 1, 2020, judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court affirmed by the Supreme Court on September 7, 2022, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Maharani Devinder Kaur got 37.5% each in the royal assets while Kanwar Manjit Singh was to get only 25% share.
Accordingly, Bharat Inder Singh and Devinder Kaur, i.e., son and daughter of Kanwar Manjit Inder Singh were to get 12.5% share each in the royal assets. Since Bharat Inder Singh left behind widow Brahm Parkash Kaur and two sons-Amrinder Singh Brar and Ravi Inder Singh-only 4.16% share of the total property fell in the hands of Amrinder Singh Brar, senior advocate Sunil Chadha, who represented Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, said.
The current round of the litigation in the Supreme Court emanates from the executing court rejecting objections filed on behalf of Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur to the execution application of Amrinder Singh Brar and the High Court upholding the rejection of the objections. This is how Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur’s side moved the top court against the High Court’s July 30, 2025 order rejecting her objections to the execution plea filed by Amrinder Singh Brar.
A protracted legal battle was witnessed between ‘Maharwal Khewaji Trust’-managing property of the Faridkot estate-and Maharaja’s daughter Amrit Kaur who had in 1992 challenged the third ‘will’ said to have been executed in 1982 in favour of the trust.
The trial court in 2013 declared the ‘will’ dated June 1, 1982, in favour of Maharawal Khewaji Trust as “null and void”, “non-existent” and “not binding” upon the rights of plaintiff Amrit Kaur and granted inheritance to the Maharaja’s daughters- Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the trial court’s order on June 1, 2020, and held that descendants of the last ruler’s brother Manjit Inder Singh would get their mother Mohinder Kaur’s share in the royal property.
However, acting on a petition filed by the Maharawal Khewaji Trust challenging the High Court’s order declaring Brar’s ‘will’ as ‘forged’, the top court had in August 2020 ordered status quo and had allowed the trust to continue as caretaker of the royal property.
On September 7, 2022, it endorsed the High Court’s findings. “Once the will was proved and found to have been validly executed, in terms of specific clauses in the will, the share of Maharani Mohinder Kaur in the properties left behind by the ruler would naturally be governed by the will executed by the testatrix. The findings rendered by the High Court were, therefore, fully justified and there is no reason to entertain any challenge in that behalf.
“On the question regarding validity of Third Will, the matter was considered extensively under eight different heads and it was concluded that the Third Will was a fabricated document which was shrouded with suspicious circumstances and that the succession to the properties left behind by the Ruler would, therefore, be by intestate succession,” it had said.
“Since the submissions advanced on behalf of the appellants were dealt with by all three Courts below extensively, we do not find any reason to upset the concurrent view taken by the Courts below,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI UU Lalit (since retired) said, dismissing the special leave petitions (SLPs) against the high court’s order.
The top court rejected the SLP filed by Bharat Inder Singh, son of Kanwar Manjit Inder Singh, who had contended that by Rule of Primogeniture the properties left behind by the ruler must come in the hands of the male successor namely Kunwar Manjit Inder Singh, followed by his son Bharat Inder Singh.
“In view of the specific finding rendered by the courts below, including the High Court, in our view, no case was made out for the applicability of Rule of Primogeniture and succession based on said Rule. We, therefore, see no reason to entertain any challenge in that behalf,” the top court said, terming his SLP as “being devoid of any substance”.
It ordered that “All reports, statements of accounts and other documents, lodged with this Court, pursuant to interim directions issued by this Court, shall immediately be sent by the Registry of this Court to the Trial Court.”
The top court said, “The Trust shall be entitled to run the Charitable Hospital only up to September 30, 2022, whereafter all the aspects of management, finance and other control including the need for appointment of a Receiver shall be subject to such orders as may be passed by the court executing the decree in the instant matters.”
It had said, “Rest of the properties in the hands of the Trust and/or any other persons shall be maintained in the same form by all the concerned, till appropriate orders are passed by the Court executing the decree passed in the instant matters.”