It is newand probably the most significant turn in Oswal's family feud so far; Pankaj Oswal,the eldest son of late business tycoon, Abhey Oswal has filed a petition withDelhi High Court on 4th February 2017, claiming his absolute proprietary rightsto the extent of 1/4th undivided share in the estate of his father, being hisclass-1 legal heir. Pankaj has alleged in the petition that rest of the threeheirs, his mother Mrs. Aruna oswal, younger brother Shailendra Oswal and sisterShalu jindal are attempting to oust him from the estate of his father includingsuit properties.
For Oswals,acrid time in the family began as soon as Abhey Oswal died of heart attack onMarch 29th last year. Business tycoon of his time, Oswal died in Russia whilehe was on a business tour. He left his enormous empire without a will ortestamentary document regarding disposition of his assets, interest inbusinesses, movable and immovable properties. Since then, a succession battlebroke out between his widow Mrs. Aruna Oswal and eldest son Pankaj Oswal. Bothhave been staking their claims to run his business empire that includes twolisted firms Oswal Agro Mills and Oswal Greentech.
In thepetition filed with Delhi High Court, Pankaj claims that while he along withhis wife had moved to Australia, there was no partition, formal or informal,between him and his father. In fact, both son and father shared good relationsand he and his parents used to visit each other often. He also claimed that hewas made to wear the traditional pagdi (turban) of the family in the Pagdi Rasmheld on April 3rd 2016 after the death of his father. Wearing Pagdi was a signthat the Oswal family recognized him as the main heir to head the businessempire.
Petitionsays that after the Pagdi Rasm was over, a board meeting of OAML and OGL wassecretly convened behind Pankaj's back. Very recently he came to know that aresolution was passed in the said meeting of Board of Directors of OAML andOGL, appointing his mother Mrs Aruna Oswal as the additional director andchairperson of both the companies. Interestingly, OAML and OGL haveconsiderable assets and hold substantial shares in other companies, Inter Alia,PC Media Systems Ltd., New Delhi Television Ltd., News Nation Network Pvt.Ltd., Monnet Ispat & Energy Pvt. Ltd. and other group companies.
Unaware ofthe sabotage taking place behind him, Pankaj Oswal proposed to convene ameeting with rest of the three heirs on 4th April 2016 at OAML's office atKasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi to formally execute the consensus arrived at onApril 3, 2016, after the Pagdi Rasm.
Also, adraft memorandum of the family settlement was prepared by him for formalexecution and which was also to be shared with them. As soon as Pankaj reachedat the given place, for the meeting, he was taken by surprise that none of theother three had turned up.
Thissurprise soon turned into shock as he called up his mother to ascertain thereason for not turning up. On phone, his mother, Aruna asked him to leave Indiaimmediately and not seek any share in the assets of Mr. Abhey Kumar Oswal.Astonishingly, his brother and sister too supported his mother and asked thathe should forget about his share in the estate of his late father. Deeply upsetand shocked, Pankaj then came to know the dirty truth and ulterior motives ofhis own blood relations to oust him from the family assets.
On April6th 2016, after being confirmed of the ulterior motives of his own mother,brother and sister, Pankaj got a legal notice served to them, seeking theirconfirmation that no action inconsistent with his rights be taken in regards ofthe assets comprising the estate of his late father. Unfortunately, till datenone of them have responded to the legal notice. Further on 21st October &7th November 2016, through his lawyers, he got another legal notice issued tothe companies, banks and third parties where or with whom Late Mr. Abhey KumarOswal had substantial holdings or business dealings asserting his rights as aClass-I legal heir of late Mr. Abhey Kumar Oswal. Clearly, no evidence isrequired anymore to establish Pankaj Oswal's right on one fourth shares of hislate father's estate which is also undisputed as none of the three heirsresponded to any of the legal notices, so far.
In thepetition, Pankaj has alleged that rest of the heirs are looking for prospectivebuyers to alienate the assets, properties and business interests of his latefather by masking it as disposal of assets in ordinary course of business.
Accordingly,he has sought instant interference of the court in partition and has requestedthe court to direct rest of the heirs to transfer and/or hand over exclusivepossession of such properties which fall in his share. Also, granting permanentinjunction restraining rest of the heirs, their agents and representatives fromtransferring, alienating or creating any third party interest of whatsoevernature in respect of the his share of the assets.