Peshawar High Court disposed off a petition asking for petition asking for ownership over the Kapoor Haveli in Peshawar, saying it was a matter for a civil court.

The petitioner Saeed Muhammad had claimed that his father bought the house in an auction and Raj Kapoor had never lived in it.

“There is not a single document to prove that Raj Kapoor lived in this house,” Advocate Sabahuddin Khattak told the court on behalf of the petitioner.

He added that the house had been declared as a heritage site in 2016 causing the petitioner to lose ownership of a building that his father had legally bought and owned for over 40 years.

However, Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor told the counsel that the matter ought to be taken to a civil court.

The Haveli

The Kapoor Haveli is an old and fast deteriorating building located in Dhaki Munawar Shah area of Peshawar’s famous Qissa Khwani Bazaar. The building is said to have been constructed in 1922 by Basheswarnath Kapoor, Raj Kapoor’s grandfather.

The three-storey structure is laced with multiple hallways and is sadi to have been a marvellous structure in its heyday. Despite being given the special status of a heritage site in 106, numerous attempts have been made to deomolish the building to construct a commercial plaza. Authorities have so far managed to foil the attempts.

Rishi Kapoor and his brother Randhir had visited the site in the 1990s and even taken some dirt from the house as a token with them back to India