Bhai Mohan's will contested

Malvinder, Shivinder, Bhai Manjit stake claim.

The will of Bhai Mohan Singh, the founder of India's largest pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories, is being contested by his grandsons, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, as well as his second son, Bhai Manjit Singh.

The brothers and their uncle have separately written to the four executors of the will not to proceed with it.

Bhai Mohan Singh, who passed away on March 27 this year at the age of 89, has bequeathed a large part of his assets to his youngest son and Max India Chairman Analjit Singh, leaving a little cash for Malvinder and Shivinder (Rs 500,000 each, apart from Rs 1,000,000 for their mother) and nothing for Bhai Manjit Singh.

Malvinder, who is the managing director of Ranbaxy, and his brother Shivinder, the chief executive officer of Fortis Healthcare, said they did not accept the will as valid. Their father, former Ranbaxy Chairman Parvinder Singh, who died of cancer seven years ago, was Bhai Mohan Singh's eldest son.

The communication from the brothers, to which their mother is a signatory, has gone through the law firm of Khaitan & Khaitan.

"Our clients being the widow and sons of late Parvinder Singh are class 1 heirs of Bhai Mohan Singh and are entitled to his estate and/or share therein; and in the event of being deprived of the same, intend to claim the same," the letter reads.

When contacted, Malvinder Singh refused to comment on the issue.

Separately, in a communication to the executors through the law firm Airi & Associates, Bhai Manjit Singh has said the will has not been validly executed. Even otherwise, it says, Bhai Mohan Singh had "no right to make various bequests to various persons, as has been stated in the said will".

Bhai Manjit Singh also told Business Standard that a will drawn up by his parents, Bhai Mohan Singh and Avtar Kaur, in 2003 and read out to him and his family members had stated that all his mother's assets, movable as well as immovable, would be distributed equally between the families of the three sons.

"What has been registered is not what was read out to us," he added.