Tripura palace belongs to state govt, says HC

The verdict on Monday came five years after the state government moved the high court after a lower court in 2015 ordered the return of the property to the erstwhile royal family.

The palace of Tripura’s last king, Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur, built in the 1930s in the middle of a lake at Melagarh in Sepahijala district belongs to the state government and is no longer a property of his descendants, the Tripura high court has ruled.

Neermahal was built in the 1930s in the middle of a lake at Melagarh in Sepahijala district. (HT photo)

The verdict on Monday came five years after the state government moved the high court after a lower court in 2015 ordered the return of the property to the erstwhile royal family.

Bahadur’s son, Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya, had handed over the property to the state government for its maintenance and use for the public interest in 1972.

The last king’s daughter-in-law, Bibhu Kumari Devi, and grandson, Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman, moved the lower court in 2005 seeking the return of the palace called Neermahal, a popular tourist destination.

A division bench of chief justice A K Qureshi and justice Arindam Lodh rejected the family’s plea, saying the family had relinquished Neermahal.

Burman said that they would challenge the high court’s verdict before the Supreme Court.

In a Facebook post, he challenged the government to provide one legal document to suggest that his father gifted the palace to it.

“...I am glad that finally the state government has admitted that no money was ever paid for Neer Mahal to my father or my family. I will challenge the matter in [the] Supreme Court but I must ask one question to all if the erstwhile royal family cannot protect their private property then what hope does a poor person have”