Pakistan v Nat West case: All clear for Nizam of Hyderabad to get £35m

LONDON: A judge has dismissed applications of two relatives of the titular eighth Nizam of Hyderabad, Prince Mukarram Jah, in the famous Nizam fund/Pakistan v Nat West case clearing way for the Nizam to take possession of around £35 million funds.

Najaf Ali Khan and Himayat Ali Mirza, members of the Nizam’s extended family, had approached London High Court to stake claim over the total amount of around £35 million held in the Nat West Bank account dating back to partition in 1947.

At a hearing in the High Court, held remotely via Skype, Justice Marcus Smith dismissed attempts by Najaf Ali Khan and Himayat Ali Mirza and ordered costs of deciding the case in favour of Nizam in October last year, Justice Smith had ruled that the bulk of those funds were legally divided up between Prince Jah, his younger brother and India but a part of the sum accrued to the late seventh Nizam of Hyderabad’s English estate, which is believed to be around £400,000.

Prince Mukarram Jah told the judge he wants a “clean break” from the case, as he waived his right to a share in the estimated £400,000.

Paul Hewitt of Withers LLP said, “This litigation has lasted almost the entire lifetime of our client HEH VIII Nizam of Hyderabad. He wishes to have a clean break.

Thus, he proposes that whatever remains of the £400,000 can be distributed to the wider members of the family waiving his right to claim that money as well on the basis of the customary law which dictates that the 7th Nizam's estate passed to his heir HEH 8th Nizam.”

At the hearing, Justice Smith dealt with three applications following on from the judgment handed down in October 2019. That judgment determined that the monies deposited in 1948 by the 7th Nizam's Finance Minister belong either to the two princes, including the current 8th Nizam, or to India.

The two princes and India had reached a confidential agreement meaning that the funds have been divided between them. They also reached a confidential agreement with Mr Lintott, the Court appointed administrator of the 7th Nizam's English estate, by which an additional sum (of which an estimated £400,000 remains) passed to the 7th Nizam's English estate.

A number of the 7th Nizam's descendants attacked the October judgment. They appear to believe that the Judge decided the money still belonged to the 7th Nizam when he died but that is not what the Judge had decided.