The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will disclose a closely guarded inventory of the princely properties of the erstwhile Maharana of Mewar for the first time in 60 years since the list was prepared.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) on Monday ordered the ministry to give copies of the list to an RTI applicant, Amba Lal Nayak. The documents have not even been seen by Parliament. Property details of the royal family were drafted in 1949 by a representative of the Maharana and governments emissaries of India and Rajasthan.

The initial response from the ministry came from Director (Judicial), MHA, N M Perumal, who in November 2007, refused to part with the papers saying “properties of ex-rulers are part of unpublished official records relating to the affairs of the State”.

However, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah dismissed such arguments and also dismissed that the inventory contained “personal information” and, was outside the RTI’s purview.

Nayak had alleged that the surrender of properties of ex-ruler to the government while retaining part of the real estate was itself an “exercise in fraud” and needed to be disclosed.