Disclose status of all listed family properties: Bombay High Court to Vijaypat Singhania

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked Vijaypat Singhania, the chairman-emeritus of Raymond Group, to disclose under oath the status of family properties listed in a family settlement of 1998, between him and his estranged son Madhupati.

A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and A Sayyed directed Singhania to file an affidavit on the status of properties mentioned in the family settlement by June 22.

The direction was given during the hearing of an appeal filed by four grandchildren of Vijaypat Singhania against a single judge order of August 2015 of the high court, that refused interim relief to them in a suit they filed seeking share in the family property.

The grandchildren had also sought a direction to Vijaypat Singhania to not deal with any property included in the 1998 family settlement, which he and his estranged son Madhupati Singhania had entered in.

Madhupati's children had filed the suit in February, 2015, staking claim to their share of the family property. They sought a direction from the high court restraining any further transactions in the family assets, estimated at over Rs1,000 crore.

The appellants argued in the suit that as per the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, Vijaypat could not have dealt in any property registered in the name of his minor kids without a court order.

However, Vijaypat's counsel opposed their plea on the grounds that if the property was a joint family property, then a minor's consent or a court order is not required to deal with the undivided property.