• Source:JND
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The Rajasthan High Court has directed the descendants of the former Jaipur royal family to drop titles like ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Princess’ from their cases or see their 24-year-old case of property ownership regarding the Sawai Man Singh Townhall get annulled.

The court has set October 13 as the deadline within which fresh petitions have to be filed, removing the prefixes ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Princess’, according to a report by the Times of India. The order was passed by a single-judge bench of Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal.

Furthermore, the court warned that failing to comply with the rules of the high court will lead to automatic dismissal of the case “without reference to the court.” The directive came while hearing the petitions filed in 2001 by the legal heirs of late Jagat Singh and Prithviraj Singh, descendants of the former Jaipur royal family, challenging the court order of the collection of municipal authorities. 

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The judgment also questioned the use of honorifics in the modern-day republic, pointing out the fact that princely privileges were abolished decades ago. The court asked bluntly why such titles should continue to appear in legal proceedings.

The legal debate instensified, after four members of the Jaipur royal family questioned the Rajasthan High Court order, which earlier held that the family had no right to file a suit in the HC to either demand the possession of Sawai Man Singh Town Hall, which is also known as the Old Vidhan Sabha, or claim mesne profits, i.e., the fees paid to property owners for wrongful occupation of any of their properties.

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The judge questioned the relevance of royal honorifics in today’s republic, pointing out that princely privileges were abolished decades ago. 

In January 2022, the Jaipur bench raised similar objections in a related case, seeking responses from both the Union and Rajasthan governments over the continued use of royal designations. Earlier, Jodhpur principal seat of the high court, had also flagged the same concern in multiple petitions.