The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed retired Supreme Court judges Justices Vikramjit Sen and Kurian Joseph as mediators to settle the family dispute between former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi and his mother Bina Modi, reports Bar and Bench.
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana suggested the names of the former judges as mediators which was agreed to by counsel for both parties.
The top court then ordered that the mediation be held at the recently inaugurated International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC) in Hyderabad, as had been suggested by CJI Ramana during the previous hearing.
While the Court had previously opined that the matter should go for arbitration, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Bina Modi had said that she is keen on mediation and matter should ideally go to a mediator first.
“We request parties to use the facilities of Hyderabad mediation centre. We also direct parties to maintain confidentiality and mediators to undertake Non Disclosure Agreements before commencing mediation“, the Court today ordered.
The Court was hearing an appeal against a Division Bench order of the Delhi High Court which had held that the suit, filed by the family members of Lalit Modi against the initiation of arbitration proceedings in Singapore by him in connection with their family property, is maintainable.
The arbitration arose out of a Family Trust Deed executed in London by KK Modi as settlor/managing Trustee and Bina, Lalit, Charu and Samir as Trustees.
Bina Modi was represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Lalit Modi by Senior Advocate Harish Salve.
At the hearing today, Rohatgi asked the Court to consider not appointing any judges whose names were contained in a list handed over by him to “avoid unnecessary issues“.
While CJI Ramana first suggested Justices Raveendran and Sudarshan Reddy, Rohatgi pointed out that both names had been suggested by the other side.
Therefore, the Court appointed Justices Vikramjit Sen and Kurian Joseph as mediators.
The IAMC is spread across 16,000 sq. ft. area and is located in the financial district of Hyderabad.
The Centre has four Arbitration hearing rooms, two mediation rooms, break-out & conference rooms, arbitrators retiring rooms, cafeteria etc. The Centre is also equipped to handle on-line arbitrations and mediations via high-quality video conferencing.
