Former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will play a part in resolving the current estate matter that is ongoing between the family of late businessman Sunjay Kapur and his mother Rani Kapur, wife Priya Sachdev Kapur. The development comes amid a growing legal battle over the ownership and management of Kapur’s assets.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice JB Pardiwala informed all those concerned to refrain from making any public comment on television or social media about the mediation process, it is reported. The court’s order is to provide a resolution of the sensitive family dispute that is fair and confidential.
The issue came to the fore again after Priya Kapur got an order from the Delhi High Court in this case to hold her assets in trust till the authenticity of the alleged will of Sunjay Kapur is established in the trial proceedings. The petition against the will was apparently started by Kapur’s children – actor Samaira Kapoor and Kiaan Kapoor – who raised allegations of suspicious circumstances around the document that transferred the businessman’s estate to their stepmother.
The High Court also imposed certain restrictions on Priya Kapur, which included restrictions on the sale, transfer of equity shares of various Indian companies, withdrawal of funds from provident fund, disposal of valuable artworks, and operating certain bank accounts and cryptocurrency accounts (apart from payments pertaining to her children under an earlier divorce settlement).
The Supreme Court had issued notice on a plea petition filed by Rani Kapur earlier this year and noticed the problems she faced at the age of 80 in pursuing a long litigation. Mediator Chandrachud is being seen as an effort to resolve the case amicably, rather than a protracted battle in court over the big-ticket case.