Kalyani family feud: Baba Kalyani's nephew, niece move Pune court claiming share in group assets

In a fresh twist to the Kalyani family dispute, industrialist Baba Kalyani's niece Pallavi Anish Swadi and nephew Sameer Hiremath have moved the Pune District and Session court demanding a share in the group's assets.

Sameer and Pallavi -- the children of Sugandha Hiremath, the younger sister of the Bharat Forge chairman and managing director, have filed a civil suit in a Pune District and Session court on March 20, claiming a right in the group assets, saying the the group is a Hindu undivided family.

The latest case in the Pune court comes about a year after Sugandha had moved the Bombay High Court in March 2023, against Baba Kalyani and the family seeking implementation of a family settlement reached in 1994, under which they were to gain the control of pharma and biotech firm Hikal.

Sugandha's move had come weeks after the death of the group's matriarch Sulochana Kalyani.

The petition itself admits that they are unaware of the total size of the assets and properties held by the HUF, but some reports pegged the market capitalization of the group's eight listed companies, including Bharat Forge, at over Rs 69,000 crore. Apart from it, there will be movable and immovable properties.

The suit by Sameer and Pallavi contends that starting with their great-grandfather Annappa Kalyani, the family's joint assets and funds have been used for various businesses. His son Neelkanth (Sugandha and Baba's father) continued as the karta or manager of the family assets after Annappa's death in 1954, and Baba took over in 2011 following the deterioration of his father's health.

In the suit, Sameer and Pallavi blame Baba's ''authoritarian and non-cooperative attitude'' for differences in the joint family and subsequent litigations in different courts.

Reacting to the development, a Bharat Forge spokesperson alleged that the petitioners intend to ''malign'' the image of Baba Kalyani through the claims and added that they went to the media even before serving it on the defendants.

''As and when the suit is served on us, we will defend our position before the court of law, including initiating appropriate civil/criminal defamation proceedings for tarnishing the image of Kalyani, his family and the Group,'' the spokesperson added.

There have been multiple agreements signed between the Kalyani family, but none of them have ended the Kalyani Family HUF, the suit said, adding that amendments to the Hindu Succession Act in 2005 makes the daughter get the same right as a son, and make Sugandha as a coparcener.

The petition says Sameer and Pallavi become a coparcener being the children of a coparcener and ''therefore have right and interest in all the joint family properties of the Kalyani Family HUF.'' It also relies on Neelkanth's autobiography, where the then head of the family had said that all the businesses were started using funds from the HUF.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)