Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Late businessman Sunjay Kapur’s wife Priya Sachdev Kapur on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that his ex-wife and actor Karisma Kapoor’s children cannot challenge his will on the “bogus” ground of incorrect spellings or address. The only ground to challenge the will, Priya’s counsel told the court, was if the deceased was not of sound mind, or was under coercion or under some inability to execute the will, which are all grounds of challenge available in probate proceedings.
The counsel made the submission during of a petition filed by Sunjay Kapur’s step-children challenging their father’s purported will of his assets worth reportedly Rs 30,000 crore. The actress’ children have filed the suit against Priya Kapur, her son, as well as the deceased’s mother Rani Kapur and Shradha Suri Marwah, the purported executor of the will dated March 21, 2025.
Priya’s lawyer Rajiv Nayar claimed that the entire plaint of the plaintiffs, Samaira and Kiaan Raj, was bereft of any cause of action and there was no challenge to the will. “I disclosed the will on July 30. There were two opportunities to plaintiff. There was a will reading. It was read out to everyone, including the plaintiff. Everybody knew that there is a will of Sunjay Kapur in existence,” the counsel said, as per Press Trust of India.
“The suit is filed on September 9. There is no reference or challenge to will in the plaint. Will is shared with them on September 15. They are conscious about existence of will as far back on July 30, prior to the filing of the suit. Today, we are dealing with a non-existent challenge to the will. It’s a bogus challenge,” said the counsel, adding that no one challenged Sunjay’s signature on the will.
“Has anyone disputed the signatures? All that is said is that he couldn’t have done it. We are to only see that whether the will was executed by a person of sound mind in the presence of two attesting witnesses. The challenge is because the will was given late. Or that he couldn’t have executed. There is no challenge to the execution of the will,” argued the counsel.
He claimed that a narrative is being built, which claims ‘everything was okay between Sunjay and Karisma’. “If that was the case, would there be another wife?” he asked.
Karisma’s children on Tuesday told the high court that their late father could not have drafted his purported will as “feminine pronoun” is used in it to describe him. The children’s counsel said there was a fundamental question that whether the will was signed by Sunjay or by a woman in the declaration clause. He said there was no explanation of the mistake and that the children’s stepmother, Priya, and other defendants were silent on who prepared the will.
On Monday, the kids’ lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani questioned the authenticity of the will, claiming that Sunjay had written his daughter’s address wrong and misspelt his son’s name in multiple places in it. On October 9, the children accused Priya of being “greedy” while terming her “Cinderella stepmother” before the court. The children’s counsel claimed on October 9 that Priya has got 60 per cent of the assets and approximately 12 per cent have gone to her son. “She is also getting 75 per cent of the trust,” the counsel claimed. They told the court that there was “enough evidence” to conduct a probe, while accusing Priya of forgery.
Questioning the authenticity of the will, the counsel said that prima facie Sunjay did not consult an advocate while making the current will. It was “not possible that he would not have consulted an advocate before creating a will and bequeathing such a large estate,” they said, adding that the executor of the will got it one day before its reading. The will was modified when Sunjay was on a holiday with his son, adding that the person who forged the document got rewarded.
The court will resume hearing in the matter on Friday.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
