Settlement Better Than Litigation, Sc Tells Modis

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The Supreme Court yesterday asked the rival groups in the Modi family to come to a settlement instead of wasting their energy in litigation.

Justice Sujata Manohar, the presiding judge, reminded them of the fate of the Kamanis and the Mafatlals who also resorted to litigation to end the dispute over the division of companies among family members.

Justic D P Wadhwa too reminded the Modi brothers of the futility of litigation.

The court adjourned the hearing of the appeal till December 11 for negotiations. It also amended the earlier order of the Delhi High Court barring the Modipon board of directors from meeting to consider the sale of shares of a certain company.

The case was earlier withdrawn from the Delhi High Court, which was dealing with the disputes over the implementation of the memorandum of understanding between two factions of the family signed in 1989. Even among the two factions, referred to as A and B, there are a number of sub-groups and individuals who do not agree on several points.

In the words of the counsel, there are so many brothers at war that they have exhausted all the alphabets.

Following the lead of the court, counsel on all sides expressed their eagerness to settle the dispute. They went out of the court for five minutes and returned to tell the judges that the brothers would meet in groups and try to arrive at an agreement. The main dispute is the valuation of the Modipon shares. While one group wants it to be calculated at the book value, another group want it at the rate at the time of the MoU date.

An arbitrator recommended the market value at the time of the transfer. It appears that by this arrangement, K K Modi will have to pay Rs 21 crore to the M K Modi faction.

The latter claims the non-payment had resulted in three of their units falling sick.

The court did not go into the facts of the dispute as it was stressing on negotiations right from the beginning.