NEW DELHI: Taking a dim view of what it described as “washing dirty linen in court”, Delhi HC on Tuesday advised the mother, wife and family members of late industrialist Sunjay Kapur to go for mediation to resolve their differences and not let God’s “blessing of wealth turn into a curse”.After hearing multiple allegations levelled by the Kapur clan against each other, Justice Mini Pushkarna asked if there was “any chance of mediation”. “God has blessed you with good financial wealth. At the end of the day, all parties are in pain, they are grieving and all of you suffered. Lead a good life rather than fight,” Justice Pushkarna said. Sunjay, 53, died in London in June last year.The judge asked the senior counsel appearing for Sunjay’s mother, his wife and his sister to sit down together to solve their issues in a manner in which everyone’s interests were safeguarded. “All of you should try to respect relations… The way forward is resolution in a peaceful manner. Efforts need to be from both sides,” Justice Pushkarna observed orally.The HC was dealing with a lawsuit by Sunjay’s mother Rani Kapur for a purported family trust to be declared “null and void”. In her lawsuit against daughter-in-law Priya and others, 80-year-old Rani alleged that the trust, constituted in Oct 2017, was a product of “forged, fabricated and fraudulent” documents, and that she was wrongly divested of all her rights, assets and legacy. The high court also highlighted the need for Priya to realise it was Rani’s husband (Surinder Kapur) who “founded everything”, and the fruits of his labour should be shared by all.The HC issued notice to Priya and others on a plea by Rani to stay disbursal of dividends from a group company to her daughter-in-law and to preserve the estate. It also sought her stand on Priya’s claim that the suit be rejected.Rani’s suit says she is the sole beneficiary of the entire estate belonging to her late husband, Surinder, who was the promoter of various businesses, including Sona Group of Companies, and a “systematic fraud” was committed on her when the assets were transferred to the “RK Family Trust”.A separate plea by the two children of actor Karisma Kapoor, Sunjay’s former wife, challenging the authenticity of the purported will of their late father is also pending in the HC.
