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Mr Arun Jaitley (centre) enters the Calcutta High Court to appear for the Birlas in the matter pertaining to discharge of caveats filed by the four Birlas over the probate of late Priyamvada Devi Birla's last will and testament, on Wednesday. - Parth Sanyal

Kolkata , Aug. 25

THE first day of hearing in the case between the Birlas and the Lodhas over the late Priyamvada Birla's will began with the latter raising questions regarding the joint stand taken by the Birlas.

In an argument laden with data and references to old correspondence, lawyers representing the Lodhas sought to discount the unified stance adopted by the various Birla factions.

Mr Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta on Wednesday allowed Mr B.K. Birla and Mr Yash Birla to file a supplementary affidavit in the context of the executors of the wills written by Mr and Mrs M. P. Birla in 1981. The passing away of Mr and Mrs Birla, who were executors of each other's wills, necessitated this move. The court asked the Birlas to produce the original wills on Monday.

Day one at the Calcutta High Court was marked by the presence of a battery of lawyers on both sides, with two former Union Ministers, Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr Satyabrata Mukherjee, representing Mr B. K. Birla and Mr K. K. Birla respectively. Senior lawyers Mr Bhaskar Sen and Mr P. K. Roy represented Mr G. P Birla and Mr Yash Birla respectively.

A large part of the hearing dealt with the discharge of caveats filed by the Birlas. The next round of hearing has been set for next week.

The Birla lawyers on their part underlined that the two wills written by Mr and Mrs M. P. Birla were "mutual and concurrent," and that their assets were to be used for charity after their passing away. There were four executors on both sides - in each case, one has passed away, Mr Jaitley noted, adding that each vacancy needs to be filled up by the remaining three executors - Mr B. K. Birla and Mr Yash Birla were to be appointed in their positions.

Counsel for the Lodhas, led by Mr Anindya Mitra, argued that the Birlas had not been as united as they wished to indicate at this juncture. Nor were they all soacutely involved in group assets. Ms Priyamvada Birla, for instance, owned merely 100 shares of Century Textiles. And in Pilani Investments, the holding company for the group, she had no holding at all.

The Lodha lawyers further argued that the concept of "common management" was actually a "myth" in reality. It was also contended that the argument that there was joint interest insofar as the Birlas are concerned did not hold water.

It was also pointed out that Mr R. S. Lodha had showed his copy of Priyamvada Birla's will, a few days after her demise, to some of the Birla scions. No one, however, had raised any objection at that stage.

Speaking for Mr Lodha, Mr Mitra further argued that the 1982 set of wills was never mentioned by the Birlas or their lawyers in their initial interactions and correspondence, immediately after the death of Priyamvada Birla.

Meanwhile, the controversy over the valuation of the M. P. Birla property continues. Sources with Mr Lodha's legal team said Priyamvada Birla's I-T returns stated that her total assets stood at Rs 3.52 crore. "We have sought probate for her assets. How can we seek probate for the entire M P Birla group... that is not permitted under law," a source said.

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