New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) Late businessman Sunjay Kapur’s wife Priya Kapur on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that 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.
“I am assuming this to be probate proceedings. After 45 years, I am told that there are four additional grounds to invalidate a will — wrong spelling, wrong address, writing testatrix instead of testator and closeness of witnesses.
“I ask myself, in the entire experience of our ladyship, both as a lawyer and a judge, is this the requirement of proof in a probate case that a will will be invalidated on any of these grounds,” the counsel said.
The counsel made the submission before Justice Jyoti Singh during the hearing 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.
Appearing for Priya Kapur, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar claimed before the judge 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 disclose 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.
“Suit is filed on September 09. There is no reference or challenge to will in the plaint. Will is shared with them on September 15. I am only on being aware of the will. 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,” he said.
No one challenged Sunjay Kapur’s signature on the will, the counsel said.
“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,” he said.
Kapoor’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 Kapur, or by a woman in the declaration clause.
He said there was no explanation of the mistake and that the children’s step-mother, Priya Kapur, and other defendants were silent on who prepared the will.
The court will resume hearing in the matter on Friday.
Kapoor’s children have questioned the authenticity of the purported will.
On Monday, their counsel questioned the authenticity of the will, claiming that Sunjay Kapur 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 Kapur of being “greedy” while terming her “Cinderella stepmother” before the court.
In the fairytale Cinderella, the young woman is mistreated by her stepmother, who focuses all of her attention on her own two daughters.
The court on September 26 allowed Priya Kapur to file the list of her husband’s assets in a sealed cover and suggested that the parties involved in the property dispute before it do not share the details with the media.
The children’s counsel claimed on October 9 that Priya Kapur 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.
He told the court that there was “enough evidence” to conduct a probe, while accusing Priya Kapur of forgery. He made the submission while seeking the status quo on the movement of assets of Sunjay Kapur, who died on June 12.
“She (Priya Kapur) is a nominee and she holds the assets. How far the forgery of documents goes will have to be unravelled and there is enough evidence to conduct a probe,” the counsel said.
He said Priya Kapur was in “glaring hurry” to restrict children’s shares. “This is a Cinderella stepmother,” he added.
Questioning the authenticity of the will, the counsel said that prima facie Sunjay Kapur 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”, he said.
He said the executor of the will got it one day before its reading. The will was modified when Sunjay Kapur 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 October 13.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline ,no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
Doonited Affiliated: Syndicate News Hunt
This report has been published as part of an auto-generated syndicated wire feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been modified or edited by Doonited
