HC admits Adnan Sami's appeal against court order asking him to hand over flats to ex-wife

Adnan Sami

The Bombay High Court has admitted for final hearing an appeal filed by the Pakistani singer Adnan Sami against the family court's order which asked him to hand over five flats in the suburban Andheri to his former wife Sabah Galadari and to pay her a sum of Rs 6.40 crore.

READ: HC stays family court order asking Adnan Sami to pay ex-wife

Adnan Sami. File Pic

Galadari has filed a matrimonial suit in the family court, claiming a compensation from Sami. She has also sought possession of the flats, saying that Sami had gifted them to her in 2008. Sami filed the appeal last month, following which the High Court had stayed the family court's order till June 10.

As the High Court admitted Sami's appeal -- it would come up for final hearing now -- yesterday, the division bench of Justices Vijaya Tahilramani and Ajay Gadkari also extended the stay for ten weeks, while asking Galadari to file a reply.

The family court on April 5 had ordered Sami to pay Galadari Rs 5.3 crore towards repayment of the money she had given him between 2007-08, Rs 1 crore as a domestic violence compensation, Rs 10 lakh as belated 'mehr' and Rs 1 lakh for litigation costs. The court had also asked the singer to hand over his five flats in Lokhandwala area of suburban Andheri to Galadari.

Sami's lawyer, advocate Ranbir Singh, argued that the family court did not appreciate the legal effect of the order of the Enforcement Directorate against him, holding that Sami had no legal title and hence no legal authority to gift the suit property (the flats).

ED had objected to Sami's purchase of property in India without RBI's permission, he being a foreign national. Sami and Galadari married in 2001 and got divorced in 2004. They re-married in 2007, and again got divorced in 2012.