Priya Kapur has been given extra time by a Delhi court to respond to an application from Mandhira Kapur Smith. Mandhira wants Priya to hand over documents in the criminal defamation case which is itself tied to a bigger disagreement over the inheritance. This is happening because of continuing arguments in court about the estate of the late Sunjay Kapur, which is said to be worth 30,000 crore rupees.
Court hearing and procedural update
At the Patiala House Court, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Siddhant Sihag said Priya Kapur’s lawyers could have more time to give a formal answer to Mandhira’s application. Mandhira was at the court hearing by video. Representing Priya Kapur were Senior Advocate Maninder Singh and lawyers Smriti Asmita and Jhanvi Narang.
Amit Prasad was in court for Mandhira Kapur Smith. During the hearing, Maninder Singh explained to the court that his team hadn’t received a copy of the application until the day before and needed time to prepare a response. The judge agreed to a short break in the case for this to happen.
Arguments over document production and relevance
Priya’s lawyers are against Mandhira’s request for documents. They say the defamation case is still at the “notice stage” – it hasn’t gotten to the point where charges are being formally decided. They argue asking for documents now is too early in a criminal case and should wait for later.
Priya’s lawyers also said the documents Mandhira wants are about property, trusts and the estate itself, not about the actual claims of defamation. They also say a lot of the documents requested are already known to the public, so there’s no need for them to be handed over.
Nature of the defamation complaint
Priya started a criminal defamation case in January. She says that things being said publicly are misleading, are damaging her reputation and are intended to bother and harass her by being discussed in public instead of being dealt with in a court of law. She named Mandhira Kapur Smith and another person as those she is making the claim against.
The lawsuit says statements made online and to the public are part of a continuing pattern of damage to Priya’s good name. Mandhira’s request for documents seems to be a way of testing or questioning those accusations, though Priya’s lawyers say the connection between the documents and the defamation claims isn’t very strong.
Context: inheritance dispute and will controversy
This argument over procedure is part of a much larger argument over the inheritance of the late Sunjay Kapur, who used to be chairman of Sona Comstar. Sunjay was first married to the actress Karisma Kapoor and they have two children, Samaira and Kiaan. After they divorced, Sunjay married Priya Sachdev and they had a son, Azarias.
Last August, Priya gave a document to the court which she said was Sunjay’s will. Sunjay’s children and his mother, Rani Kapur, have disputed this. Reports have said Sunjay’s total wealth was around 30,000 crore rupees, although his children have publicly stated they don’t know the exact amount.
What to expect next and legal implications
Because the court has given Priya’s team more time to respond, they will probably give a more detailed explanation of why Mandhira’s request for documents is too early and why the records she wants are not important to the case. The court will then decide whether to order the documents to be handed over, to remove parts of Mandhira’s request, or to wait to make a decision until a later point in the criminal case.
If the court thinks the documents asked for are clearly and directly related to the defamation accusations, it might order them to be produced. If not, the decision could strengthen the rules that protect people from being forced to hand over a lot of documents at the early “notice stage” of a case.
Broader consequences for estate and reputational disputes
This situation shows how disputes over very valuable estates frequently end up in criminal court and become public, with arguments about reputations and battles over documents. People might use defamation claims to try and stop damaging things being said publicly, while those on the other side might ask for documents to question someone’s honesty or claims about wills and trusts.
Courts will consider the rules of procedure, what’s relevant and what the public interest is when deciding between allowing documents to be handed over and stopping what could be a too broad and early search for information. For now, the disagreement is ongoing and the next documents submitted by each side will determine how the legal battle over Sunjay Kapur’s estate and the related claims about reputations will go forward.
