Thursday, May 12 2005 13:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: A division bench of the Calcutta High Court today (May 12, 2005) stayed a trial court order that rejected the caveats of three members of the Birla family in the Priyamvada Birla will case for the Rs 5000 crore worth assets of the M P Birla group.

A division bench comprising Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice P N Sinha, taking up the appeal of the Birlas against the rejection of their caveats by Justice K J Sengupta, passed an interim stay for ten weeks on the order.

The bench directed Rajendra S Lodha, contender for the assets, to file an affidavit in opposition within three weeks after the court reopens following summer vacation.

K K Birla, B K Birla and Yashovardhan Birla, whose caveats had been rejected, were directed to file an affidavit in reply in another three weeks after that.

The matter would come up for final hearing eight weeks after the court reopens following summer vacation.

While senior counsels Satyabrata Mukherjee and Samaraditya Pal appeared for the Birlas, Anindya Mitra and Pratap Chatterjee represented Lodha.

After months of bitter arguments, Justice Sengupta had ordered that the three Birlas had no caveatable interest in the probate petition filed by Lodha for legal authentication of Priyamvada Birla's purported will of 1999.

The court, however, had admitted the caveatable interest of G P Birla, who was an executor of Priyamvada Birla's purported will of 1982.

Rajendra Lodha, a chartered accountant who had claimed that the entire assets of the M P Birla group had been bequeathed to him by Priyamvada Birla vide the purported will of 1999, had challenged the caveats filed by all the four Birlas.

The caveats filed by two sisters of M P Birla, Radha Devi Mohta and Laxmi Devi Newar, had not been challenged by Lodha.

As such, the two sisters and G P Birla were allowed to contest the probate petition of Lodha. Lodha, a chartered accountant who went on to become the co-chairman of the M P Birla group, had revealed the will to the Birla family a few days after the death of Priyamvada Birla in July last year.

M P Birla, who had died in 1990, and Priyamvada had no children.

The Birlas, however, challenged the authenticity of Priyamvada's purported will of 1999 claiming that M P Birla and Priyamvada had prepared a mutual will in 1982 as per which the entire assets of the group should go to charities.