*High Commissioner for Pakistan in the United Kingdom v National Westminster Bank plc

Constitutional law – Foreign sovereign state. The present proceedings concerned the entitlement to £1m deposited with the defendant bank by the first High Commissioner to Pakistan in 1948 and now worth approximately £35m. The Chancery Division held that the grandsons and heirs of the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, and India should be joined as interested parties. It further exercised its powers, under CPR 38.4, to set aside Pakistan's notice of discontinuance of proceedings seeking an order for delivery up of the funds and/or damages for their conversion by the bank. In serving the notice of discontinuance, Pakistan had been abusing the process of the court, namely, to preserve its sovereign immunity, which had been waived by starting its action.