The legal battle over the will of great classical singer and Bharat Ratna recipient Pandit Bhimsen Joshi has escalated to the Bombay High Court now. Joshi’s children from his second wife Vatsala Joshi have knocked on the doors of the High Court seeking a stay on a Pune court’s order restraining them from alienating the suit property.
Justice K.K Tated is slated to hear the matter next month.
Three siblings — Jayant, Shrinivas and Shubhada — have filed an appeal from order against Raghavendra, Anand, Usha (Bhimsen Joshi’s children from his first wife Sunanda) and the resident editor of a famous Marathi daily in Pune. The litigation concerns to Joshi’s bungalow “Kalashree” in Pune, four flats in upscale localities of Pune and royalty from 18 music companies. The property in question runs into crores of rupees.
Joshi had married Sunanda in 1944. In 1951, before the Hindu Marriage Act was codified, he married his disciple Vatsala Mudholkar.
After his second marriage, Joshi started staying with his second wife. But he maintained both the families, and completed all the family obligations. After the death of the doyen of classical music, his children from his first wife challenged the will executed by him on September 22, 2008.
They claimed before a city civil court in Pune that the singer was seriously ill since 2006 and that he was not of sound mind at the time of the execution of the eight-page will.
“He was bedridden and hospitalised for 42 days just six months before 22.9.08. He was kept on ventilator and facing the disease Meningomia in his brain. He had lost control over his body and mind. He had undergone many operations and shocks to his body. On this backdrop, late Bhimsen Joshi was not in a position to execute the alleged will. The language used in alleged will is unnatural and not desirable to the simple living attitude of late Bhimsen Joshi,” the civil suit had stated.
His children from the first wife thus claimed that he died without making any will, and that they should therefore have undivided share in his suit property.
Joshi’s children from his second wife however contested the claim. They said the deed was genuine. They pointed out that the singer had received the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna at the same time, and that he had given many media interviews, indicating he was sound.
The Pune court however passed an order in September 2013 restraining Joshi’s children from the second wife from alienating any suit property or creating any third party interest.
This order has now been challenged by them in the Bombay High Court.
“The whole approach of the learned trial court is without application of mind to the basic and elementary provisions of law, which if considered, would have laid the entire controversy to rest. The learned trial court failed to appreciate that in the matters of testamentary disposition, a disgruntled party is bound to come up with some sort of circumstances which may be of suspicious in nature according to such party. However, mere existence of some alleged suspicious circumstances cannot be a reason to casually grant interim relief,” the appeal filed by them through their lawyer Bina Pai stated.
Ms. Pai said the court has kept the matter for hearing on August 11.
