The Supreme Court has disposed of a batch of Special Leave Petitions arising from one of India's longest-running family business disputes, upholding the Bombay High Court's decision to refer disagreements among the Kirloskar family — promoters of the Kirloskar group of companies, including Kirloskar Brothers Limited — to arbitration under a Deed of Family Settlement dated 11 September 2009. By its order dated 11 August 2026, the Court directed the constitution of a three-member Arbitral Tribunal, seated at Pune, to adjudicate the disputes.
The Kirloskar group's ownership has been the subject of a protracted standoff between Sanjay Kirloskar, chairman of Kirloskar Brothers Limited, and his brothers Atul and Rahul Kirloskar, all three being sons of Chandrakant Kirloskar. The underlying disagreement concerns the interpretation and implementation of the 2009 family settlement deed that was intended to demarcate control over the group's various operating companies among the family's branches. Litigation over whether these disputes were arbitrable at all, and if so before which tribunal, has run for several years, including an earlier round in which the Supreme Court explored whether the family would consent to mediation before the arbitration question was pressed to a final ruling.
In its August 2026 order, the Court appointed Justice Nitin Madhukar Jamdar, former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, as nominee arbitrator on behalf of Kirloskar Brothers Limited, and Justice K.R. Shriram, former Chief Justice of the Madras and Rajasthan High Courts, as nominee arbitrator on behalf of the contesting respondents. The two nominee arbitrators were directed to jointly appoint a Presiding Arbitrator within four weeks, completing the three-member Tribunal that will now hear the substantive family settlement disputes.