Kamal Ghorui
After Sunjay Kapur’s demise last year, his widowed wife Priya Sachdev Kapur and mother Rani Kapur have been in a legal dispute regarding his estate. Earlier, the court had suggested Rani that ’80 is not the age to fight’. The court had then suggested that they opt for mediation. Now on Thursday, the Supreme Court of India appointed former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud as mediator in the ongoing family dispute involving late industrialist Sunjay Kapur’s mother Rani Kapur and his wife Priya Kapur over the management and control of a family trust.A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan directed all parties to approach the mediation process with an open mind. The court also instructed them to refrain from making any public comments or discussing the issue on social media.“It is a family dispute. Let it be confined among the family only. It should not be a source of entertainment,” the court further added.The apex court observed that during the previous hearing on April 27, it had already suggested mediation considering the sensitive nature of the matter. On Thursday, lawyers representing all sides agreed to the proposal, after which former CJI Chandrachud was formally appointed as mediator.“We shall await a preliminary report from the mediator and thereafter proceed further with the matter,” the court said while scheduling the next hearing for August.The dispute centres around a family trust allegedly established in October 2017 in the name of 80-year-old Rani Kapur. She has moved the apex court seeking to have the trust declared “null and void”, alleging that it was formed on the basis of “forged, fabricated and fraudulent” documents.Earlier, the Supreme Court had issued notices to Priya Kapur and other respondents on Rani Kapur’s plea. The petition also sought a status quo on the transfer or alienation of the trust’s assets and properties until the case is resolved.Meanwhile, the legal battle concerning the Kapur family’s estate and assets is already pending before the Delhi High Court, while the plea before the Supreme Court seeks to maintain status quo over all trust properties during the pendency of the proceedings. For those not in the know, Sunjay’s ex-wife Karisma Kapoor’s kids have also been in a legal dispute with Priya as they alleged that she has forged his will. Recently, the court gave interim relief to Karisma’s children on the case and freezed Sunjay’s accounts.
