In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court determined that private properties of the erstwhile royal family of Kapurthala would be inherited based on personal succession laws rather than the rule of male lineal primogeniture. The dispute, involving two branches of the family, centered around the devolution of properties after the merger with the Indian Union.
The apex court set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s decision that favored Brigadier Sukhjit Singh (retd) in claiming exclusive rights to disputed properties under the customary rule of primogeniture. The ruling clarified that while succession to the throne continued under primogeniture, private properties declared by the ruler post-merger would follow personal succession laws.
According to the Supreme Court, the covenant signed during the formation of the Patiala and East Punjab States Union preserved primogeniture only for the throne, not for the ruler’s private properties. The judgment emphasized that former rulers, upon signing merger agreements and losing sovereignty, became ordinary citizens, subjecting their private properties to general personal succession laws.
Referring to earlier rulings and cases, including the “Travancore case” and the Faridkot royal property dispute, the Supreme Court reiterated that succession to private ancestral properties should adhere to the ruler’s personal law, not primogeniture or custom. The court deemed the High Court’s conclusion on primogeniture’s application to the disputed properties as “illegal and unsustainable in law.”
