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Case file s293 · Great houses · 1984
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1984
Maharana Pratap: Maharana Pratap By Surendra Singh Shaktawat
Maharana Pratap. Surendra Singh Shaktawat (Semliyaheera). CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
3 November 1984 (Bhagwat Singh Mewar)
Place
City Palace, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Field
former ruling family, hotels · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
Indian law; Hindu undivided family property; Rajasthan civil courts · Civil law · Hindu law
Historical event
Abolition of princely privy purses in 1971; coronation of Vishvaraj Singh Mewar at Chittorgarh, 25 November 2024
Great housesCut out of the willPostwarSouth AsiaIndia

A Maharana's will gave Udaipur's City Palace to his younger son, and 41 years later the heirs threw stones at its gates

Bhagwat Singh Mewar was the last titular Maharana of Udaipur. On 22 April 1983 his elder son, Mahendra Singh, sued him for partition of the family estate, accusing him of wasteful spending. Bhagwat Singh's will left his property through a trust to his younger son, Arvind Singh, with his daughter Yogeshwari as trustee. Mahendra was left out. Bhagwat Singh died on 3 November 1984. The suit ran for 37 years. In 2020 a district court in Udaipur ruled in a 575-page judgment that the assets put into trusts were joint family property. It gave a quarter each to the three children and a quarter to Bhagwat Singh's estate, and ordered the siblings to hold the properties in four-year turns from 1 April 2021. The Rajasthan High Court stayed that order in 2022. Mahendra died on 10 November 2024. On 25 November his son Vishvaraj, a BJP member of the state assembly, was installed as Maharana at Chittorgarh. That night Arvind's side refused him entry to the City Palace for a ritual at the Dhuni shrine, and stones were thrown from both sides. The district administration put the disputed shrine under a receiver, and Vishvaraj entered with four men two days later. Arvind died on 16 March 2025. In December 2025 the Supreme Court sent all cases between Arvind's son Lakshyaraj and daughter Padmaja over his own will to the Delhi High Court.

What the law took from it

A will that cuts out the eldest son can keep one heir in possession for decades, but it does not stop a partition suit from making the whole estate joint property.

Sources
  1. morungexpress.comPress
  2. thebuckstopper.comPress
  3. theprint.inPress
  4. etvbharat.comPress
  5. thehindu.comPress
  6. thehindu.comPress
  7. The Times of IndiaPress
  8. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “A Maharana's will gave Udaipur's City Palace to his younger son, and 41 years later the heirs threw stones at its gates,” story s293, https://www.celebrity.estate/maharana-1984, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Great housesCut out of the willPostwarSouth AsiaCivil lawHindu lawIndia