Ambani Brothers Dispute Not For Courts

An article in the Times newspaper here covers the formal commencement of hearings in the legal battle between two brothers representing the most affluent of India's business families. In spite of this being described as a business dispute about the agreed price for sale of energy by one side of the firm to the other, I am skeptical that this is really a matter for the courts. The series of disputes between them that commenced after their father's demise suggests to me that this is more than a commercial matter.

Granted that there is a commercial interest for each of the brothers in the outcome of the case, to my mind, it is clear that this is a family feud related to inheritance that is being resolved in the courts. Notwithstanding the claim in the story that Mukesh and Anil Amabani are together managers of corporations that account for 5% of the Gross Domestic Product for India, I suspect that the feud between them cannot be resolved through the courts. Indeed, the proper arbiter here may still be their mother as she was the one who engineered the initial division of the property inherited from their father. Evidence that this is not entirely a commercial dispute would come in a subsequent court battle irrespective of the outcome of the present one. As a consequence therefore, the real arbiter for 5% of India's GDP is Kokilaben and she requires the wisdom of Solomon here.