Bal Thackeray will: Estranged son Jayadev files fresh suit against Uddhav

MUMBAI: Even as the dispute over the late Bal Thackeray’s will continues, the battle over his property has taken a twist with his estranged son Jayadev filing a fresh suit against Uddhav, the present Shiv Sena president, in the Bombay high court. Jayadev filed the declaratory suit on December 31, 2015, during court vacation against Uddhav and three members of their late brother Bindumadhav’s family—his widow Madhavi and children Neha and Nihar.The suit is essentially to seek his rights over his father’s assets and properties, which, in the absence of a will, he would be entitled to as a legal heir. The details of the suit are not available.
Uddhav and Jayadev are locked in a dispute over their father’s December 13, 2011, will ever since the latter’s death on November 17, 2012. In the will, Thackeray bequeathed almost all his assets, including a major portion of his Bandra (E) bungalow Matoshree, to Uddhav, who is also his political heir, but almost nothing to Jayadev. The second floor was willed to Madhavi, while Uddhav resides on the third floor with his wife Rashmi and their two sons.
Jayadev contested the will and questioned his father’s lack of dispositive capacity. The new suit is yet to be served to the other side.
Meanwhile, the dispute over the will, which would decide its genuineness or otherwise, is expected to come up for hearing in the high court next month.
The court is in the process of recording depositions of witnesses and has already completed the cross-examination of Dr Jaleel Parkar and advocate Flanian D’Souza, who had signed as witnesses. Dr Parkar had deposed that Thackeray was in “a proper frame of mind” when he made the will in 2011.
While Uddhav's witnesses have deposed, now it is Jayadev's turn to step in the box. He also has to file his evidence affidavit.
The fresh suit may have come as a result of a plea made by Jayadev for interim protection of his father’s properties, from sale or transfer, having been dismissed by Justice R D Dhanuka in April 2014.
“In the Indian Succession Act, there is no provision authorizing the testamentary court to make interim orders as a matter of course for protection of properties during the pendency of the testamentary (pertaining to a will) suit,” the judge had held. The court had said that while deciding on a will, the court has “no power to decide on the title of the property of the deceased”. The judge said Jayadev was not precluded though from filing a separate civil suit for protection of property.
The will has named Uddhav, Sena leader Anil Parab, late advocate Adik Shirodkar, architect Suresh Prabhu and Thackeray’s PA Ravindra Mhatre as executors.