In a crucial development the Calcutta high court on Thursday dismissed the caveat filed by Rajendra Lodha against the 1982 will of Priyamvada Birla and ordered that the matter to decide the authenticity of the Piryamvada's will of 1999 be taken up first.
Justice Kalyanjyoti Sengupta passed the order after lengthy arguments over a number of caveats filed by both the sides in the matter concerning probate petitions by Birla and Lodha for two different wills.
The court, however, reserved its order on the caveat by Lodha against M P Birla's will of 1982.
Birla vs Lodha: War over a will
The court observed that a decision on Priyamvada's purported will of 1999, which was the last will, would settle all disputes in the case.
Justice Sengupta ordered that the hearing in the probate petition for 1999 will would begin as soon as the matter would be ready for hearing.
In the meantime the Birla side on Thursday also filed three applications for appointment of an administrator to take control of the M P Birla group assets from Lodha till the issue of who controls the company is settled.
Lodha, a chartered accountant in the M P Birla group, had been bequeathed the entire group assets worth over Rs 5000 crore (Rs 50 billion) by the purported will of Priyamvada Birla of 1999. The will came to light days after she died on July 3 this year.
The Birla family, however, disputed the genuineness of the 1999 will claiming that the group assets should go to charities as per a mutual will of M P Birla and Priyamvada Birla made in 1982.