SC issues notices to Lodha in Priyamvada will case
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to R S Lodha and others on a petition filed by three members of the Birla family, challenging the Calcutta High Court's decision that they had no caveatable interest in the case pertaining to 1999 'will' ...
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to R S Lodha and others on a petition filed by three members of the Birla family, challenging the Calcutta High Court's decision that they had no caveatable interest in the case pertaining to 1999 'will' of late Priyamvada Birla.
The bench comprising Justice B P Singh and Justice H S Bedi issued the notices on the appeal filed by K K Birla, B K Birla and Yashovardhan Birla against the December 21 order of a division bench of the High Court, which had upheld a single bench ruling that the three had no right to object to the will left behind by Priyamvada Birla.
Senior advocates R Nariman and Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Lodha, said that under the 1982 will, M P Birla's widow Priyamvada Birla had got the absolute rights in the property, and she had bequeathed the entire estate to Lodha after her death in July 2004 through a will of 1999.
"The three Birla members are opposing the probate bacause they have got nothing and want to claim interest by contesting the 1999 will," they added.
Their interests can be carried on by other Birla family members and the executor of the purported July 13, 1982 will, G P Birla, and others executors who have been given the right by the High Court to challenge the purported 1999 will," they added.
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According to the petitions, the three Birla family members in their capacity as relatives of the deceased, had interests coupled with duty to ensure that the wishes of M P Birla (being a Hindu) to attain spiritual well being and atonement of his sins, if any, by bequeathing his property to charity after his demise or his wife's demise were fulfilled.The petitioners further added that a Hindu by religion considered charity an essential part of religion, whereby he or she attains spiritual benefit. "The claim for caveatable interest on basis of 'mutual will' would apply with greater force when such mutual will has a charitable object as ultimate beneficiary and the Court would have a liberal approach," they stated.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court had, on December 21 last year, upheld a single bench's order as well as an earlier lower court's verdict that three Birla family members had no caveatable interest in Lodha's probate petition for the M P Birla group's assets.
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