Bombay High Court asks industrialist Vijaypat Singhania not to release autobiography till March 25

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has restrained industrialist Vijaypat Singhania from releasing his autobiography "The Incomplete Man" till March 25.

In an order earlier this week, Justice Sandeep Shinde also directed a civil court in Thane to take up for final hearing a suit and other applications filed by Raymond Limited seeking to stop the book's release.

"...I deem it appropriate to request the civil judge of Thane to hear the suit and all applications filed therein seeking interim reliefs on March 25," Justice Shinde said.

The high court was hearing an application filed by Vijaypat Singhania, praying that the suit filed by the company in Thane court be shifted to a civil court in Mumbai, where a similar suit has been filed by his son Gautam Singhania, current Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond.

Raymond's lawyer Kartik Nayar said the high court has restrained Vijaypat Singhania from publishing his book till March 25.

"The high court has directed the Thane civil court to decide the suit filed by Raymond as expeditiously as possible," he said.

The company, in September 2018, moved the Thane court alleging that the book's contents were defamatory and it should not be allowed to be published.

Vijaypat Singhania then approached the high court seeking transfer of the matter to a Mumbai court, citing inconvenience.

The Singhania senior and his son Gautam are also locked in a legal battle over a duplex apartment in the 36-storey redeveloped J K House building in south Mumbai.

In a petition filed in the high court in 2016, Vijaypat Singhania claimed that his son was refusing to honour an arbitration order which awarded the duplex to him.