The Bombay high court yesterday (26th April) sought an undertaking from actor-producer-director Randhir Kapoor and his sister, Rima Jain, that they would make reasonable efforts to locate and submit the divorce decree of their late brother, actor Rajiv Kapoor. Justice Gautam Patel asked for this while hearing a testamentary petition filed by the siblings for letters of administration to the property and credits of Rajiv who died intestate on 9th February, 2021. The petition said, Rajiv married Aarti Sabharwal in 2001 and they were divorced in 2003.
The high court registry had asked for a certified copy of the divorce decree. The siblings said, they were the only heirs to his estate, and they sought a dispensation to submit the decree as they did not have a copy of it and did not even know which family court in Bombay or Delhi had passed it. The divorce was acrimonious, the court was informed.
Justice Patel said that he was prepared to dispense with the requisition from the registry but upon the petitioners giving a sworn undertaking that they would make reasonable efforts to locate the decree of divorce and, if found, would tender a certified copy to the registry. He added that this did not mean that the progress of the testamentary petition, which was uncontested and listed only the petitioners as next of kin, should be stopped or the grant withheld only for this reason.
