Hyderabad: The Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning (MJTEL) has asked the famous HEH Nizam Museum and other institutions, run by Muffakham Jah and his family in Purani Haveli, to move out.

Sources said that the 15-year lease of HEH Nizam’s Museum, run by Muffakham Jah’s Nizam Trust, reportedly expires in August this year and his brother, Mukarram Jah, who heads MJTEL, is not willing to renew the lease as he wants to expand his junior college and other institutions in Purani Haveli.

Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan’s grand children, Mukarram Jah — the heir to the Nizam — and his brother Muffakham Jah, are locked in a legal battle over lease of properties.

MJTEL had issued legal notices last year to Mr Muffakham Jah’s institutions like the HEH Nizam’s Museum, Princes Durru Shehvar Hospital and Nizamia Hyderabad Women’s Association Trust (NHWAT), asking them to vacate the premises.

“My client, Mukarram Jah Trust, has withdrawn permissions to these institutions and has asked them to vacate. While the HEH Nizam Museum issue is in the courts, legal notices have been served on two other institutions,” said M. Vidyasagar, senior advocate for the Mukarram Jah Trust.

The Muffakham Jah Trust, in its counter, had reportedly claimed that it had paid sales consideration for the Princess Durru Shehvar Hospital and the Nizamia Hyderabad Women’s Association Trust premises. But Mr Vidyasagar said, there was no proof that an agreement of sale was reached between the two parties. Amidst this controversy, Muffakham Jah had laid the foundation stone for a new school building for the Princess Esin Girls High School at Jalpally near Shamshabad Airport, which is run by the Nizamia Trust. He, however, refused to comment on the issue.

Director of NHWAT, Sultana Nazeerul Hasan, meanwhile, said, they had not received any legal notice to vacate. “The school is independent and has nothing to do with the issue,” she said.

HEH Nizam Museum, established in 2000 at Purani Haveli by the Nizam Trust, houses priceless collections of Nizam VI and VII. “It’s true that the 15-year lease agreement of the museum comes to an end in August this year. We have been asked to vacate the premises. We offered to increase the rent but the Mukarram Jah Trust wants us to vacate the premises,” a representative of the museum told DC. It is learnt that Princess Esra, former wife of Prince Mukarram Jah, had offered space at the Chowmohalla Palace to house the museum, but it could not be confirmed.