Oberoi Hotel Group family feud: Delhi High Court halts transfer of shares

A dispute over the will of hotelier late Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi of the Oberoi Hotel Group has reached the Delhi High Court with the Court restraining transfer of shares in EIH Ltd and EIH's holding companies Oberoi Hotels Private Limited and Oberoi Properties Private [Anastasia Mirjana Jojic Oberoi & Ors vs. Rajaraman Shankar & Ors.].EIH limited manages the Oberoi and Trident hotel chains. .Justice Navin Chawla granted interim injunction in favour of late Oberoi's daughter, Anastasia Oberoi who moved the Court claiming rights in shares of the companies as per the will of late Oberoi.The suit was filed by Anastasia and her mother (plaintiffs) against her brother, sister and cousin (defendants) alleging that they were obstructing the execution of the will.“Having considered the above submissions, in my view, the interest of justice and the interest of plaintiffs can be protected by restraining the defendant nos.1 to 3, and defendant nos.4, 7 and 8 from transferring or transmitting any shares in defendant no.4, defendant no. 7, and/or defendant no. 8 held by the Testator,” the Court ordered..The Court also protected the plaintiffs’ possession of family property named ‘Villa Ashiana’ located at Kapashera in Delhi, by restraining the defendants from interfering with the possession and enjoyment in the property.“The defendant nos.1 to 3 and defendant nos.5 and 6 are also restrained from interfering with the possession and enjoyment of plaintiff no. 1 and plaintiff no. 2 of land and building situated at Khasra no.160/4 located in the Village of Bijwasan, Kapashera, Delhi," the Court said..Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi passed away on November 14, 2023.The source of this suit was his will dated October 25, 2021. The veracity of his will has been disputed between the parties who have propounded two different wills in support of their case.While Anastasia and her mother have based their claims on the October 2021 will, the defendants have propounded a will dated March 20, 1992..On the question of maintainability of the suit posed by this court, the plaintiffs’ counsels submitted that as per the Indian Succession Act, 1925, there is no compulsion to seek probate of a Will that has been executed at Delhi.A probate under the Indian Succession Act of 1925 is a certificate issued by a court of competent jurisdiction allowing the executor of a will to execute the will of the deceased.The plaintiffs submitted that the will of late Oberoi bequeathed some shares and a property called ‘Villa Ashiana’ in their favour as trustees of the Aashiana Trust. The plaintiffs requested urgent relief on the basis of certain correspondences which indicated that the defendants were planning to sell the shares which would defeat the rights of the plaintiffs..The defendants based their case in an earlier will dated March 20, 1992 and an oral family settlement between late Oberoi and his father that the companies’ shares held by Oberoi in trust for the defendant companies were to devolve upon the defendants on the death of Oberoi.The counsel for defendants submitted that the suit is not maintainable and the proper remedy would be to seek a probate with respect to the will.Further, it was submitted that as per the articles of association of the companies, Oberoi was restricted from transferring his shares without first giving a right of pre-emption to the defendant companies. .The Court held that, on the face of it, the will of October 2021 propounded by the plaintiffs seemed reliable and probate was not required for its execution.“For the present, there is sufficient material placed on record by the plaintiffs to demonstrate the prima facie reliability of the Will and the Codicil of the Testator propounded by them.”Hence, it proceeded to grant interim relief to Anastasia and her mother and restrained sale of shares in the companies..Senior Advocates Sandeep Sethi, Arun Kathpalia, Jayant Mehta with advocates of Capital Law Chambers Swapnil Gupta, Shivambika Sinha, Nimita Kaur, U Banerjee, Aadil Singh Boparai, Srishti Khanna, Saurabh Dev Karan Singh, Gurveer Lally, Abhinav Mishra, Vaibhav Mendiratta appeared for Anastasia Oberoi.Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam with advocates Aadil Singh Boparai, Swapnil Gupta, Shivambika Sinha, Nimita Kaul, U.Banerjee, Srishti Khanna, Saurabh Dev Karan Singh, Abhimanyu Arun Walia, Abhishek Dubey, Abhinav Mishra, Gurveer Lally, Vaibhav Mehdiratta appeared for Anastasia's mother Mirjana Jojic Oberoi.Advocates Shankh Sengupta (Trilegal), Ribi V.Garg, Shreyash Sharma appeared for defendants Rajaraman Shankar, Daniel Lee Farrugia and Natasha Devi Oberoi.Senior Advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Amit Sibal with Advocates Aseem Chaturvedi (Khaitan & Co), Aakash Bajaj, Shivank Diddi, Preorna Banerjee, Sania Abbasi appeared for defendants Vikramjit Singh Oberoi and Arjun Singh OberoiSenior Advocate Rajiv Nayar along with advocate Aman Gupta appeared for Oberoi Hotels Pvt. Ltd. and Oberoi Properties Pvt. Ltd. [Read Order]