CIC asks MEA to reveal facts on Jinnah House

The controversy over Jinnah House, the Mumbai property which had been owned by Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has got a new twist with a ruling of the Central Information Commission (CIC) under the Right To Information (RTI) Act asking that the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA's) correspondence on a plan to lease Jinnah House to Dina Wadia, be made, of course, under its own discretion.

The plan to lease Jinnah House to Dina Wadia, mother of Bombay Dyeing owner Nusli Wadia, is anyway in the public domain with then foreign minister Jaswant Singh saying that he was willing to swear on oath that this was so.

The CIC has, therefore, asked the MEA to reveal correspondence which would bear this out without compromising any issues pertaining to national security.

Proceedings of the hearing make it plain that Dina Wadia had written to former prime minister Vajpayee on July 6, 2001, asking that Jinnah House be restored to her from its present status as evacuee property.

On August 28, 2001, the MEA sought the opinion of the home ministry over giving Jinnah House on long lease to Wadia. The documents trail after that becomes erratic and later turns cold. Which is why Nusli Wadia had petitioned under RTI in order to complete the document trail in support of his mother's case as Jinnah's sole heir currently being fought in the Mumbai High Court.

The plan, as put forward by the MEA then and according to Jaswant Singh endorsed by Vajpayee in 2002, had been to give Jinnah House on long lease to Dina Wadia for residential purposes and the maintenance to be paid for by the Wadias.

The matter came to the CIC as Nusli Wadia, who has gone to court on the issue, came up against a brick wall, while contesting the ownership of Jinnah House.

The MEA which seems to have changed its mind over Jinnah House, had said that revealing any correspondence on the issue would be detrimental to national security. The CIC ruled that selective correspondence not compromising national interest could be made available to Wadia.

Jinnah House has long been coveted by the Pakistan government as a consulate office in Mumbai but the

Indian government has not obliged them. The property, a sprawling three-story green and white house, is a sea facing one in Mumbai's posh Malabar hill area. A case in the Bombay High Court is currently underway over its ownership.