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Tikka Shatrujit Singh & Ors. v. Sukjit Singh & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 571Decided 27 May 2026
C.A. No.-011179-011179 - 2011
Justice Pankaj Mithal · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

The dispute was between two arms of the erstwhile royal family of Kapurthala. Brigadier Sukhjit Singh, recognised by the Government of India as ruler of Kapurthala, claimed that certain properties were his personal properties inherited under the customary rule of primogeniture applicable to princely states. His estranged wife (since deceased) and their children (including appellant Shatrujit Singh) sued for partition, arguing the properties were ancestral coparcenary property divisible under Hindu law. Both the Single Judge and the Division Bench of the High Court ruled in the Brigadier's favour, holding he was the absolute owner under primogeniture, leading the family to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that after the princely states merged with India and the paramountcy of the British Crown lapsed, the rule of primogeniture continued to govern only succession to the ceremonial "gaddi" (throne) and its associated privileges. It did not extend to properties the ruler had declared as his personal private property. Such personal properties, the Court held, devolve according to ordinary personal succession law (the Hindu Succession Act), not by primogeniture, following the three-judge bench precedent in the Faridkot case over a conflicting Division Bench ruling. Applying this, the Court set aside the High Court's judgment in part and ordered a preliminary decree of partition, allotting shares among the Brigadier, the surviving son, and the daughters according to Hindu succession principles for the various properties.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a hereditary title or privilege continues to pass by custom (such as primogeniture for a former royal seat), a person's personal private property does not automatically follow the same rule. It devolves under ordinary succession law and is divisible among all legal heirs, not just the eldest male descendant.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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