After a raging war spanning over a decade, the city's biggest and ugliest land dispute seems to have finally been settled. According to a letter submitted in the Supreme Court on March 29, the two parties involved in the case, Sultan ul-Uloom Education Society (SUES) and Shahamat Ali Khan (grandson of the last Nizam, better known as Shahamat Jah), have reached a compromise, closing the case for good. The letter states that Jah has withdrawn his claim over 18 of the 24 acres of the SUES campus land on Road No. 3, Banjara Hills, which was the bone of contention between the two parties. Legal experts say the education society is now the sole owner of this prime property and the Nizam's kin have no right over it any more.

This development comes a year after the property dispute had taken an ugly turn when two SUES members were stabbed right outside the college premises. Those privy to the settlement say that peace between the two parties has come at a huge price with SUES apparently paying Rs 10 crore to Jah for an out of court settlement. The letter to the apex court notes that Jah has withdrawn the case he had filed against the SUES management, which was pending at a lower trial court.

The battle over this piece of land had been brewing between the two parties for several years with SUES claiming to have purchased the entire area (24 acres) from the Moazzam Jah Trust way back in 1980 to set up a minority education institution. The Nizam's grandson, Jah, had claimed himself to be the legal heir of two-third of the land but SUES rejected his claim and alleged that Jah had no ownership right over the property. Jah, nonetheless, in the meantime sold six acres of this area to a third party, a private realtor.