Legal eagles sign on for the billions' battle

After filing caveats in the matter relating to last will of late Priyamvada Birla, since deceased, both the Birlas and Lodhas spent much of Thursday signing up the best lawyers in the country to get justice from the law court.

The Birla family factions were of the opinion that the court would accept their plea for rejection of the will which reportedly passed on the Rs 5000-crore odd assets of M P Birla group to group co-chairman R S Lodha and not to any Birla family member.

On the other hand, the Lodha viewpoint was that the late Priyamvada was free to settle properties and assets of her group in any way she deemed fit.

The Birla solicitors, Khaitan and Company, had lodged a caveat in the case, but Fox and Mondal, the solicitors acting for R S Lodha, said it had not yet received any notice of such caveat till afternoon.

Legal sources said Khaitan and Company had selected Team Birla for the forthcoming legal battle already. It would be headed by former West Bengal chief minister and Punjab Governor Sidhartha Shankar Ray.

Ray's team mates will be former NDA government central minister S B Mookherjee, former Clarion chairman Sudipta Sarkar and son of S B Mukherjee, S N Mookherjee. All were eminent lawyers practising in the company jurisdiction courts.

Fox and Mondal, the solicitor firm appointed by Lodhas, had started briefing Team Lodha to defend the will. The team was likely to be led Samarditya Pal, husband of Justice Ruma Pal of the Supreme Court of India, Shaktinath Mukherjee, a leading civil lawyer, along with the high profile Anindya Mitra, Sudish Chandra Dasgupta and Shyama Prasanna Roychoudury, all senior civil advocates.

There was one specialist in the team - Dipak Basu, a lawyer who has a great reputation relating to obtaining probate on wills. The team was likely to induct one more heavyweight - none other than Pratap Chatterjee, son of Parliamentary speaker Somnath Chatterjee.