
Mint Explainer | Can mediation really solve the ₹30,000 crore Kapur family dispute?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi/Mumbai: The Supreme Court’s decision to send the high-profile Kapur family dispute over late Sona Comstar chairman Sunjay Kapur’s estimated ₹30,000-crore estate to mediation under former chief justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has drawn attention to how Indian courts are handling promoter-family battles outside traditional courtroom litigation.Mint explains whether mediation can really solve inheritance battles that carry financial and emotional stakes, and how mediation works in high-profile family business disputes.The inheritance battle emerged last year after Sunjay Kapur, the then chairman of Sona Comstar, one of India’s largest automotive technology and EV component makers, died following a heart attack.Sunjay Kapur’s children – Samaira and Kiaan – from his earlier marriage to actor Karisma Kapoor, moved the Delhi High Court, challenging a will that allegedly left his entire estate to his widow, Priya Kapur.
They sought a one-fifth share each in their father’s personal estate and claimed they were repeatedly denied access to the will.Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in which a neutral mediator helps parties negotiate a settlement rather than litigate the matter in a full court trial. India broadly has court-referred mediation, institutional mediation, private mediation, pre-litigation mediation and online mediation.
Under the Mediation Act, 2023, mediated settlements can receive legal enforceability.A 2016 report by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy found that out of nearly 46,000 court-referred mediation cases, about 41,503 were family disputes. More than 25,000 family law matters were referred to mediation between 2011 and 2015“The process
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