Market price of Salman Rushdie's ancestral home challenged in Delhi HC

British author Salman Rushdie smiles as he attends a photocall with his book `Quichotte` for the authors shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize for Fiction at Southbank Centre in London. Pic/AFP

An application has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking the setting aside of an order passed by a single-bench which had estimated the market price of Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie's ancestral house in the capital city's Civil Lines area at Rs 130 crore.

A legal battle ensued between Rushdie's family and that of Congressman Bhiku Ram Jain for almost 50 years after a deal to sell the house fell through.

In 2012, the Supreme Court had directed the Rushdie family to hand-over the house to the Jains for the market price as on date of the order.

The decision to determine the market value of the property was, however, left on the Delhi High Court.

On December 24, 2019, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw estimated the market price of Rushdie's ancestral house, which is adjacent to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence, at Rs 130 crore.

Aggrieved by the price fixed by the Delhi High Court, Bhikhu Ram Jain's son Narender Jain has now moved the court asserting that the order is "non-est, bad in law and passed in blatant transgression of the directions passed by the Supreme Court and untenable on facts and in law."

"Pass an order allowing the present appeal; set aside the impugned order dated 24.12.2019 along with all the findings and, or observations contained therein; determine the market price of the suit property in terms of the Supreme Court Order dated 3.12.2012," the petition requested.

The Booker prize winner's father Anis Ahmed Rushdie had entered into an agreement with Bhiku Ram Jain to sell the house Rs 3.75 lakh.

The two families then got into a dispute after they accused each other of not respecting the terms of the agreement.

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