Submit actor Rajiv Kapoor’s divorce decree in Mumbai: HC to siblings

Mumbai: Bombay high court on Monday sought an undertaking from actor Randhir Kapoor and his sister Rima Jain that they would make reasonable efforts to locate and submit the divorce decree of their late brother Rajiv.

Justice Gautam Patel heard a

testamentary petition

filed by the siblings for letters of administration to the property and credits of Rajiv, who died without having made a will on February 9. The petition said Rajiv married Aarti Sabharwal in 2001 and they divorced in 2003.

Senior advocate Sharan Jagtiani, for the siblings, submitted that the HC registry has asked for a certified copy of the divorce decree. They sought a dispensation to submit the decree saying they do not have a copy of it and do not even know which family court passed it.

“The sister and brother are the only heirs to his estate. We don’t have access to the decree of the divorce. We tried to look for it, but were not able to locate it. We seek dispensation,” said Jagtiani.

To his query whether the 2003 decree was not uploaded on the family court’s website, Justice Patel was told the case details were not known or whether it was filed in Mumbai or Delhi. “It was an acrimonious divorce,” Jagtiani added.

Justice Patel, in his order, said in Rima’s additional affidavit of April 21, there is a re-affirmation of fact of this divorce. “It notes that there is some material in the public domain that makes a mention of the divorce,” he said.

Justice Patel said he is prepared to dispense with the requisition from the registry “but upon the petitioners giving a sworn undertaking that they will make reasonable efforts to locate the decree of divorce and, if found, will tender a certified copy to the registry”. However, he added that this does not mean that the progress of the testamentary petition “which is

uncontested

and lists only the petitioners as next of kin, should be stopped or the grant withheld only for this reason”.