India's 2005 Supreme Court ruling gave the Raja of Mahmudabad's son back his palaces, and Parliament rewrote the law to take them again

The Raja of Mahmudabad held one of the largest estates in Oudh, with the Qila at Mahmudabad, Butler Palace in Lucknow and the Metropole Hotel in Nainital^†. He backed the Muslim League, left for Iraq in 1945, moved to Pakistan in 1957 and died in London on 14 October 1973. His wife and son, Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, stayed in India as citizens. After his death the Custodian of Enemy Property took the estate under the Enemy Property Act of 1968, passed after the 1965 war. The son sued. On 21 October 2005, in Union of India v. Raja Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, Justices Ashok Bhan and Altamas Kabir held that heirs who were Indian citizens could recover the property and ordered it returned. The government issued ordinances to block the ruling. In March 2017 Parliament passed the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act. It vests all enemy property in the Custodian, voids earlier transfers before and after 1968 and bars civil courts from hearing such disputes. The son went back to court; cases under his name against the Union of India were still being decided in 2024 and in June 2026. He died in 2023^†. The estate stays with the Custodian.