Hiranandanis have roped in Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a Queen’s Counsel (QC), as an arbitrator for a Rs 1,400-crore dispute in the family. The other arbitrators are another QC and former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A P Shah. The panel is expected to solve by June the scrap between brother and sister, who are both high-fliers in their own right.
While son Darshan before turning 30 reportedly developed 23 Marina, the “world’s completed tallest residential towers” in Dubai, daughter Priya Vandrewala sold her business process outsourcing company for $100 million in 2005 when she was not even 35. The scions are squabbling over the spoils of the family’s massive real estate empire.
The cracks in the relationship appeared three years ago when the London-based Priya, a chartered accountant by training, suspected that her brother and father were doing her out of her rightful share of profits by allegedly violating an agreement that was signed in 2006. The agreement pertained to Hirco PLC, which the Hiranandanis and Vandrevalas started in London and subsequently created a subsidiary, Hirco Developments Pvt Ltd, to develop large urban housing centres in India. Priya’s case was that she and her husband, Cyrus Vandrevala, had raised the money for investments but contrary to their agreement, her father and brother continued to buy plots by involving other developers. The claim has been countered by both Hiranandani and Darshan.
The 57-year-old Blair has her own identity as a leading QC in Britain. A barrister since 1976 and a law graduate from the London School of Economics, she specialises in public law, discrimination, European Community law, employment law, human rights mediation and arbitration. A legal services website describes her as “an international arbitrator experienced in dealing with people from many cultures and all walks of life”. Last month, she joined the long list of high-profile names who sued Rupert Murdoch’s group for alleged hacking of her phone by News of The World.
