JAIPUR: Princely states are long gone, but the ‘Maharaj’ has lingered. Now, Rajasthan high court has drawn a line.Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal directed descendants of the former Jaipur royal family to drop the prefixes “Maharaj” and “Princess” from their ongoing petitions or see their 24-year-old case dismissed. The court set Oct 13 as the final deadline.Courts had objected to royal honorifics earlier alsoOne week’s time is granted to the petitioners to file a correct amended cause title deleting the prefix Maharaj and Princess from the names of the petitioners and respondent, Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal said on Friday.Failure to comply, the court warned, would mean automatic dismissal “without reference to the court”.The directive came while hearing petitions filed in 2001 by legal heirs of late Jagat Singh and Prithviraj Singh, descendants of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family, challenging the collection of house tax by municipal authorities.The judge questioned the relevance of royal honorifics in today’s republic, pointing out that princely privileges were abolished decades ago. The court asked bluntly why such titles should continue to appear in legal proceedings.In Jan 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.
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