The Hindu Business Line : Priyamvada's will: R.S. Lodha files caveat

MR R.S. Lodha, responding to a threat challenging the legality of the late Priyamvada Birla's will, leaving the assets of the MP Birla group, valued at around Rs 5,580 crore, to him, has filed a caveat in all courts within the Kolkata jurisdiction.

The purpose, according to legal experts, is to ensure that no steps can be taken by the court (ex parte) without a notice to him (a kind of warning to a probate court). This is said to be a safeguard measure to prevent anyone from quietly filing a succession certificate in any court, triggering an effective challenge to the will. Sources feel this move clearly indicates that Mr Lodha is gearing to go for a probate at the earliest.

Senior Counsel Mr Saktinath Mukherjee, it is learnt, may appear for the Lodha group to get a probate from the court of district delegate. A probate is a legal acceptance that a document, especially a will, is valid, and the grant of probate proves that a will is genuine, given to the executors so that they can act on the terms of the will.

The law provides that to get a probate, notice to all legal heirs has to be served, which is mandatory, and should be served application under Act XXXIX by Mr Lodha, the beneficiary. It is pointed out that even if Mr Lodha is appointed an executor of the will, this legal requirement will have to be followed for obtaining a probate.

Legal experts, when quizzed on the likely outcome of the developments in the wake of the unexpected last will of the widow of M.P. Birla, and the caveat filed on Wednesday by Mr Lodha, say that the matter, if taken to court, may drag on for years.

They cite cases where wills have been contested, with the matter still pending before the Supreme Court even after a lapse of 40 years. The will, they say, has to be probated, at which stage it may be contested by those opposed to it; in this case, by other members of the Birla clan, who feel that the will is an "unnatural" one.

According to a senior partner of a top legal firm in city, there is no such thing as a compromise in matters of a will. Either it is valid, properly witnessed and executed, or not, and if contested and proved that it is not valid, the person is said to have died intestate (without leaving a will), and the property or estate in question will be governed by provisions of the Hindu Succession Act and Hindu Law. In such a situation, a court receiver may be appointed.

According to one top lawyer, the three main aspects that need to be examined in the case of a will are proper execution (attested by two witnesses) with the required testimoneum clause; the assets and property have to be personal, emanating from a non-HUF (Hindu undivided family); and the inheritance practice is as per the Dayabhaga or Mitakshara schools laid out in Hindu law. The Mitakshara practice, it is learnt, is prevalent in the Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan belts, where inheritance is determined on the basis of different categories, such as birthright. Dayabhaga is prevalent in Bengal and Orissa.

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