INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

RANBAXY SCIONS TALK PEACE

   MAX India chairman Analjit Singh will file a probate application regarding the will of late Bhai Mohan Singh in the court next week. The probate application will seek to get the court's endorsement regarding the authenticity of his father's will. It will also give Bhai Mohan Singh's second son Manjit Singh as well as grandsons — Malvinder and Shivender Singh — an opportunity to challenge the will in court.

At the same time, Analjit Singh and the Malvinder-Shivender duo are keeping the option of a track-II dialogue open regarding the disputed Ranbaxy shares, valued at around Rs 125 crore.

“I am open to a dialogue with him (Analjit Singh) regarding the disputed shares. He is my uncle and I have great regard for him. I have no issue with him. But if he has any issue I am ready to sit down with him and try to sort them out,” Ranbaxy MD Malvinder Singh told ET, even as he refused to comment on issues relating to the will.

Analjit Singh, too on his part, says he is amenable to sit down and talk with his nephews. “I will be happy to initiate a dialogue with them,'' Mr Singh told ET from London.

The court cases regarding the ownership dispute over the shares have been going on for some years now. The will is being contested both by the Ranbaxy scions as well as Manjit Singh.

BHAI Mohan Singh's will appoint Analjit Singh as his sole legal representative to carry on his legal disputes against Ranbaxy as well as Malvinder and Shivender, and does not leave anything to Manjit Singh.

Analjit Singh say he is not surprised that the will is being contested. “I expected this. Manjit is unhappy because he has not received anything. Malvinder and Shivender are contesting the will because of the disputed trust shares,'' he said.

Mr Singh is confident that the veracity of the will cannot be questioned. “The will is registered. It was signed in the presence of the registrar. There are witnesses. There are photographs and video clips of the entire process,'' he said.

He added that while his father was afflicted by a stroke in end-January, the will was signed last November, when though frail, he was in healthy condition. Mr Singh asserted that the 15 Aurangzeb Road property in Delhi was not under dispute. “There are water tight documents regarding the ownership of the property,'' he said.