The inheritance battle that is brewing in the family of late Kollywood veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan has revealed that the actor's daughters have contested a will that is believed to be his.
The Quint has exclusive access of the plaint filed before the High Court which has highlighted the daughters’ contention that Ganesan’s will, executed on 23 June 1999, was allegedly "fabricated."
The suit is centered on a property dispute in which the daughters – Santhi Narayanasamy and Rajvi Govindarajan – have accused the sons – actor Prabhu and producer Ramkumar – of cheating them of their rightful inheritance. The suit was filed on 19 November 2021. It came up for hearing on 8 July.
The daughters have estimated the cost of Ganesan's assets to be worth Rs 270.60 crore.
“The said will is a concocted document fabricated” by the sons “with the oblique motive of defeating the legitimate rights” of the daughters, the plaint read.
"Sivaji Ganesan was an affectionate father and he loved his two daughters and sons. Sivaji Ganesan was never intended to disinherit his daughters," read the plaint.
‘Genuineness, Truth, and Validity’ of the Will Questioned
Sivaji Ganesan, who had ruled the Tamil film industry for over five decades, passed away in 2001. His wife, Kamala, passed away in 2007. Their two sons and two daughters are their legal heirs.
The 2005 Amendment of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 removed the gender discriminatory provisions regarding property rights and balanced the property rights of male and female siblings.
However, in the suit, the daughters of Ganesan have alleged that the brothers “did not come forward for amicable partition of the properties.”
As per the plaint, the daughters have clarified that all the contested assets were acquired and owned by their father as he had a “strong independent source of income.” They do not come under ancestral property, they have claimed.
The daughters have alleged that only after they sent a notice to their brothers regarding "illegal sale" and "misappropriation of properties, were they informed of the will left behind by their father.
The plaint has stated that a notice was served to the sons in September 2021, asking them to refrain from performing any transactions with respect to the properties. The sons then produced a purported will.
The sons, on 11 October 2021 “propounded an unregistered will alleged to have been executed by Sivaji Ganesan thereby bequeathing his properties to his male descendants and also had appointed an executor,” alleged the plaint.
The sons had also stated that the movable properties including jewellery, shares of Shanti Theatre and Shivaji Films Ltd, and bank deposits have been distributed among the family members as per Ganesan's will, the plaint has alleged.
“The execution of the unregistered will dated 22 June 1999, its genuineness, truth and validity are strongly denied,” read the plaint.
The plaint has asked why the will was not registered when all the documents relating to Sivaji Ganesan were registered.
“The plaintiffs have every reason to believe that Shivaji Ganesan did not with full knowledge of the content of the matter typewritten in a piece of paper and did not with full conscience execute the alleged will,” the plaint alleged.
A source close to Prabhu and Ramkumar told The Quint, “The will has been submitted to the court and now the court will go through the evidence and deem it fit. Then this civil suit will completely collapse.”
It is to be noted that The Quint has not independently verified the purported the will.
Daughters Allege 'Fraud and Collusion'
It is to be noted that the plaint has claimed that in June 2013, the sons allegedly approached their sisters and made them sign a ‘Deed of General Power of Attorney’ and also some blank papers.
The daughters have said that they “were made to believe that the said papers and documents would be used for the consolidation and development of the properties” and that “proper accounts relating to the property transactions” will be shared with them.
The daughters have clarified in the plaint that the settlement deeds “are not gift transactions brought about by natural love and affection.”
The daughters have alleged that their brothers had come “out with a scheme” and made them settle the property in favour of Prabhu who in turn passed it on to his son Vikram Prabhu in December 2018, read the plaint.
In September 2021, the daughters allegedly found out that the property left by their father at Manapakkam and Mugalivakkam village, Ramapuram worth over 90 crores was sold without their consent, the plaint alleged. The sale was the "offspring of the fraud and collusion" by the sons and grandsons, Dushyanth Ramkumar and Vikram Prabhu, the plaintiff has alleged.
The daughters have requested the court’s intervention to dictate the partition of properties and to deem the sale deeds allegedly executed so far to be invalid.
The Quint reached out to the the sons and daughters and haven't received a response yet. This article will be updated to include their response when they get back to The Quint.
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