Thursday, February 10 2005 19:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Rajendra S Lodha, claimant to the assets of M P Birla group, today (Feb 10, 2005) submitted in the Calcutta High Court that the concept of mutual wills did not arise as M P Birla and Priyamvada Birla had nowhere mentioned in the 1982 wills that they were mutual and irrevocable.

In the wills of 1982, there was no averment that these could not be changed, so the Birla group's theory that the 1982 wills of M P Birla and Priyamvada were mutual and irrevocable did not stand, Lodha's counsel Shantibhushan submitted before Justice P N Sinha.

He submitted that these allegations of the Birlas were to be dealt with in the civil suit at the High Court over the probate petition of Lodha for the M P Birla group property and that the criminal bench could not deal with it.

As such, the criminal case filed by Rajinder Pansari against Lodha and three others should be quashed, Shantibhushan submitted.

He claimed that Priyamvada was the sole heir of M P Birla according to his 1982 will and as such she had all the right to bequeath it to the person of her choice, adding that the Birlas could not have any say in the matter.