Review market price of Salman Rushdie’s home: Delhi HC
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has ordered a fresh revision of the market price of an ancestral property of Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie in the Civil Lines area of the national capital. The five-decade-old legal battle began when Rushdie’s father Anis Ahmed Rushdie had agreed to sell the property to former Congress MP Bhiku Ram Jain in 1970 for Rs 3.75 lakh.
However, the deal was stalled due to a dispute between the two sides. The property measuring 5,373 square yards at 4, Flagstaff Road, Civil Lines was valued by a single judge at Rs 130 crore in 2019. “… we set aside the impugned order and remand the matter to the learned Single Judge to determine the value of the suit property afresh in terms of the directions issued by the Supreme Court,” a bench of Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan ordered.
The bench also directed the registrar to place the matter before the concerned learned Single Judge on December 11 and requested the Single Judge to conclude the proceedings “as expeditiously as possible”. When the legal fight reached the Supreme Court from the HC, it was in favour of Jains which would be at the market price of the property as of February 3, 2012, the date of its judgment which was Rs 130 crore.
The Delhi High Court was also asked to determine the market value of the property. It was contended by the order of the single judge that if the Rushdies were unable to sell it for a minimum of Rs 130 crore within 60 days from then, the Jains would be entitled to purchase the property for Rs 75 crore which was the circle rate prevailing on December 4, 2012. The judge had also said if the Jains were unable to buy the property for Rs 75 crore, the Rushdies would stand relieved of the agreement entered into in 1970.