Jinnah’s will found

Dina Wadia’s claim to ownership of her father’s posh Malabar Hill property, Jinnah House, is likely to be affected by the discovery of a copy of Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s will by a central government office, which mentions that he bequeathed the property to his sister Fatima Jinnah, reported Daily News and Analysis (DNA) on March 28, 2010.

The will was legally certified as genuine by the Bombay High Court and executed in Fatima’s favor in 1962. A copy of the probate was found in the records of the custodian of enemy property for India. The Bombay based custodian, Dinesh Singh told DNA: "We have sent a copy to the ministry of external affairs for their perusal and action.” If the probate is accepted by the court, it may weaken Wadia’s claim, say government sources. The 90-year-old Wadia, a British citizen and mother of industrialist Nusli Wadia, had moved the Bombay High Court claiming ownership of the bungalow on the grounds that her father had not left behind any will (see "Mystery of the missing will,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, November 21, 2009).

Wadia has challenged the central government move to take over the property and convert it into a cultural center saying that it was relying on a wrong premise. The government, on the other hand, has been maintaining that the will was a public document and Wadia’s ignorance of it was a "brazen denial of a widely documented historical record,” DNA notes.

In an order dated September 10, 1965 the government had declared movable assets like shares, securities and debentures invested in Indian companies and bequeathed to Fatima by Jinnah in his will as enemy property. Singh explained that "since the bungalow was an immovable property and Jinnah and Fatima had migrated to Pakistan, it could not have been placed in the same category. The government had declared it as an evacuee property.”

There is no official record of Fatima Jinnah taking legal action to claim Jinnah House, according to government officials. The property was taken over under the Bombay Evacuee (Administration of Property) Act, 1949, and vested in the custodian of evacuee properties on June 27, 1949, DNA mentions.