Raja?s sword hangs on 19 ?tenants?

A DECISION on the fate of 13 Janpath Market shopkeepers/tenants of the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad is expected from the Custodian of Enemy Property in Mumbai on Monday. While none of these shopkeepers have submitted any documentary proof of their tenancy, their destiny hinges on the outcome in a similar case that of Premier Motors Private Limited.

A DECISION on the fate of 13 Janpath Market shopkeepers/tenants of the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad is expected from the Custodian of Enemy Property in Mumbai on Monday.

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While none of these shopkeepers have submitted any documentary proof of their tenancy, their destiny hinges on the outcome in a similar case that of Premier Motors Private Limited.

“I have sent all the papers submitted to me in this connection so far by tenants to the Custodian in Mumbai and am expecting a decision by tomorrow,” said managing officer Manoj Rai when contacted by HT Lucknow Live.

He said the administration had served notices on September 14, given a week’s time to the 57 occupants to furnish documentary proof of their tenancy. At the end of the deadline on September 21, only 37 people had submitted papers related to their tenancy even as others had sought more time. That leaves 19 post-65 tenants of Mahmudabad, who would have not submitted the proof of post-65 tenancy . But, determining the pre and post-65-status of the occupants is something on which the administration finds itself in a fix.

This is due to the fact that a majority of the post-65 occupants are now claiming that the premises were sub-let to them by pre-65 tenants/leaseholders of the Raja. And since these leaseholders were well within their rights in renting out their premises/taking in new business partners or associates, they (post-65) too should be treated on par with the pre-65 tenants of the scion of Mahmudabad. Ironically, none of the 13-odd Janpath shopkeepers, who claim themselves to be the sub-allottees of Oriental Motors Company have put down their contention in black and white before the authorities so far.

On the other hand, the owner of Premier Motors Private Limited, Peush Tandon in a written submission stated that the present post-65 occupant GD Baluja of Fairdeal Agencies was in fact his business associate. “We have been tenants of the Raja since 1954.

Since we were entitled to associate others, we made GD Baluja of Messers Fairdeal Agencies our business partner in 1970,” he has pointed out in his representation to the managing officer of the custodian of enemy property Manoj Rai.

Rai, however, said the while the authorities were still scrutinising these documents, he would go by whatever instructions were received by them in this connection from the Custodian of Enemy Property.