HYDERABAD: The High Court of England and Wales ordered Pakistan to pay India and the two Princes Mukkaram and Muffakhan Jah a part of the legal cost they bore to fight the case pertaining to Nizam VII’s wealth.
This was decided at the end of the follow-on hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London recently. Justice Smith, who had delivered the judgement in the Rs 307 Nizam Funds Case in October, concluded that Pakistan must pay other parties 65 per cent of their legal costs.
Under the 65 per cent costs, India is entitled to Rs 25 crore, Prince Muffakham Jah Rs 16.97 crore and the titular eighth Nizam of Hyderabad Prince Mukarram Jah Rs 7.35 crore.As part of the order of legal cost, NatWest Bank, the bank that held the funds for over 70 years, was owed Rs 3.39 crores. The bank’s cost as of now has already been paid from the total Fund.
Meanwhile, Paul Hewitt, a partner at Withers LLP, the law firm which represented Nizam’s Estate, said, “We are pleased that Pakistan has decided to not contest Justice Smith’s judgement. Our client, His Exalted Highness, the VIII Nizam, will now have access to the funds which his grandfather, HEH the VII Nizam, intended to have.”
The parties in the case, which dates back to September 1948, are the Central Government and the two Princes. Smith had mentioned earlier in his judgement that the two parties had reached an agreement regarding the sharing of the money.
In 1948, Nawab Moin Nawaz Jung, an official in the Nizam’s administration, transferred 1 million pounds to the account of a Pakistani diplomat in the UK.
The transfer was rendered unauthorised by the Seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, following which the bank authorities froze the funds until the rightful claim was established. Since then, the sum, amounting to Rs 307 crore, was locked in the National Westminster Bank in the UK.In October, Judge Smith, during his judgement, upheld the claims made by India and tore down the ones made by Pakistan.
For instance, the neighbouring country had claimed in its appeal that the money was deposited to pay for weapons Pakistan supplied to the erstwhile Hyderabad State during Operation Polo. Smith, in his judgement, found no evidence supporting Pakistan’s ‘weapon money’ claim.