Gwalior's Rajmata disinherited her son and barred him from her last rites; the Scindia property fight ran 40 years

Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia of Gwalior died in 1961. His widow Vijaya Raje became a founding member of the BJP; their son Madhavrao became a Congress minister. A 1980 arbitration award divided some property between mother and son. In 1984 she sued in the Bombay High Court to partition the family's movables; the list ran to 300 pages and included 623 kg of gold and 332 kg of silver. Her will of 20 September 1985 left 80 percent of her property to her three daughters and 20 percent to a trust. It disinherited Madhavrao and barred him from performing her last rites. Her grandson Jyotiraditya, born 1971, sued his grandmother and his father in Gwalior before he turned 20 and won an injunction in 1990. She died in 2001. Her former secretary, Sambhaji Angre, filed for probate in Delhi, and her daughters filed in Bombay. Madhavrao challenged the will. The issues in the 1984 suit were framed only in 2018. In February 2026 the Bombay High Court granted probate to the three daughters with the family's consent. In March 2026 the court was told the dispute had been settled. A 2021 estimate put the Jai Vilas palace compound and other Gwalior property at over Rs 10,000 crore.