1992 papers state M P Birla died intestate

Solicitors' role in focus

The Priyamvada Birla case has brought to light a body of documents indicating she had acted as the intestate heir to secure the assets owned by her husband Madhav Prasad after his demise in 1990, with the assistance of senior solicitors and notaries who were even today involved in the case.

The documents would indicate that M P Birla died intestate "" or without making a will "" and this gave Priyamvada the right to dispose of her assets according to her own disposition under personal law.

Priyamvada died on July 3, 2004. The assets held by Priyamvada were all received from her husband.

The documents now form part of the records which have been submitted by the Lodha and the Birla sides as part of the exchange of petitions and affidavits in original and in reply. The case was scheduled to come up for hearing on September 1 and was likely to be heard on a daily basis after that date.

In keeping with normal practice, the late Priyamvada secured a certificate from a top-notch solicitor stating she was the sole heir and survivor of the her husband M P and there was no other heir to his properties.

Besides such certificate, she had sworn an affidavit attested by a notary public stating she was a 'class 1' heir under the Hindu Succession Act of her husband M P, indicating that he had died intestate.

The affidavit had been registered in 1992 in Kolkata and was reportedly used by Priyamvada in her dealings with corporate entities to secure assets like payment of sums on maturity of bonds and deposits held in the name of her husband who had passed away in the intervening period.

Regulations would have required her to submit separate documents every time she would have approached an institution as her husband's heir.

These included securities in mutual funds like Birla Sun Life and ICICI Prudential, besides cash and other movable wealth. She also owned shares in companies like Birla Corporation, Birla Ericsson, Vindhya Telelinks, Universal Cables, Gwalior Webbing, Baroda Agents & Trading, Mazbat Properties, Mazbat Investments, Rameshwar Jute Mills, Zenith Distributors, East India Investments and Century Textiles.