HC rules Gayatri Devi’s grandchildren legal heirs

Court sets aside order saying stepsons entitled to property

The former queen mother of Jaipur State, Rajmata Gayatri Devi, in Bangalore on November 04, 2005. Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

The Delhi High Court last week ruled that Rajmata Gayatri Devi’s two grandchildren will be her legal heirs and not the two stepsons of the late maharani of Jaipur.

“A stepson can stake a claim only under the category of ‘heirs of the husband’ referred to in clause (b) of Section 15(1). Therefore, the question of other individuals claiming to succeed to Gayatri Devi’s will, cannot arise,” Justice S. Ravindra Bhat noted.

Dispute after death

The court set aside its 2010 order where it said that along with the two grandchildren of Gayatri Devi — Devraj and Lalitya Kumari, her two stepsons — Prithvi Raj and Jai Singh were also entitled to a share in her property. “The present applicants — Devraj and Lalitya Kumari — are to be treated as legal representatives of late Gayatri Devi,” the court said.

Jagat Singh, who was married to Mom Rajawongse Priyanandana Rangsit of Thailand, died leaving a will that her mother Gayatri Devi would be the owner of all his properties.

Following the death of Gayatri Devi, a dispute arose as to who would be her legal heirs.

The high court order came on a review petition by the two grandchildren challenging a 2010 decision of this court allowing two separate applications for impleadment as heirs of Gayatri Devi. One of the impleadment applications was filed by Devraj and Lalitya.

The other application was moved by Prithvi Raj Singh claiming that he, along with late Lt. Col. Bhawani Singh, son of Maharaja Sawai Mann Singh’s first wife Marudhar Kunwa, and Jai Singh were her legal heirs.

Jagat Singh’s will

It was submitted from Prithvi Raj Singh’s side that though Devraj and Lalitya might, under the normal circumstances, have been the heirs of Gayatri Devi as children of Jagat Singh, they have to be excluded as her successors because they were disinherited by their father.

The court, however, said that “the review petitioners Devraj and Lalitya Kumari are the grandchildren of late Gayatri Devi, and the children of her predeceased son, Jagat Singh, is not in dispute. Therefore, irrespective of the will by Jagat Singh, their rights as the intestate heirs of Gayatri Devi is also undeniable”.

“The son born out of her womb (nat ural born child) had clear precedence over a stepson,” it added.