Delhi HC judge recuses himself from hearing Rani Kapur’s suit challenging family trust

Delhi High Court judge Justice Vikas Mahajan on Wednesday (January 28) recused himself from hearing a civil suit filed by Rani Kapur, mother of late industrialist Sunjay Kapur, seeking a declaration that the Rani Kapur Family Trust is invalid and void.

Rani Kapur has alleged that the trust was fraudulently created by her late son and his wife, Priya Kapur, and was used to unlawfully strip her of assets left to her by her husband, Surinder Kapur.

Directing that the matter be placed before another bench,

Justice Mahajan said, "List before some other bench after obtaining the orders from the judge in-charge on the original side," while posting the case for January 29.

The Rani Kapur Family Trust was constituted under a trust deed dated October 26, 2017, and holds a shareholding in automotive components manufacturer Sona Comstar.

In her suit, filed on January 20, Rani Kapur stated that she is the sole beneficiary of the entire estate of her late husband, Surinder Kapur, promoter of the Sona Group of Companies. She said his estate was bequeathed to her through a will that was duly probated by the Bombay High Court.

She further claimed that after suffering a stroke in 2017, she became physically dependent, a situation she alleged was exploited by her late son and his third wife. According to the suit, her assets were transferred into the trust without her informed consent, and the alleged fraud came to light only after Sunjay Kapur’s death.

Sunjay Kapur, the chairperson of Sona Comstar, died of cardiac arrest while playing polo in London on June 12 this year.

The suit stated that on receiving photocopies of the trust deed, Rani Kapur discovered that the trust assets were to be used exclusively for Sunjay Kapur during his lifetime. After his death, 60% of the trust corpus was earmarked for Priya Kapur, with the remaining portion allocated for the benefit of his children — Samaira and Kiaan Kapur, from his marriage to actor Karisma Kapoor, and Azarius Kapur, his son with Priya Kapur.

Rani Kapur has claimed that she never knowingly executed any trust that excluded her from benefiting from her assets or restricted the enjoyment of the trust to one branch of the family. She further alleged that Priya Kapur was the "chief mastermind" behind the conspiracy.

The suit also alleged that her signatures on the trust deed were forged, a claim she said was supported by a forensic expert. She stated that she neither read the trust deed nor was informed about its contents, and was unaware that it purported to divest her of her estate or make her son the exclusive beneficiary.

Rani Kapur has named 23 defendants in the case, including Priya Kapur, her seven grandchildren, witnesses Nitin Sharma and Dinesh Agarwal, and others connected to the disputed documents.

The suit was filed days after the Delhi High Court reserved its verdict in a separate case filed by Sunjay Kapur’s children, Samaira and Kiaan, seeking to restrain Priya Kapur and Azarius Kapur from creating third-party interests in Sunjay Kapur’s properties.

Also Read: Delhi HC bars multiple entities from using Delhivery logo, domains