New Delhi, Dec. 20: Delhi High Court has ordered status quo on the title and possession of Ranbaxy founder late Bhai Mohan Singh’s property at 15, Aurangzeb Road, in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi.

“Parties are directed to maintain status quo, as regards title and possession to the suit properties, till further orders,” a single judge bench of the high court said in an order passed on Wednesday. The case will come up for hearing again on March 3, 2010. The court was acting on a petition filed by the late Bhai Mohan Singh’s estranged son Manjit Singh in 2006 staking a claim to the property on the basis of a family settlement in 1989.

Mohan Singh’s youngest son Analjit Singh is contesting the case. “Anyway we were not doing anything to the properties. It’s not as if were selling or alienating its ownership,” sources close to Analjit Singh said. The property, spread over two acres, is worth several hundred crores. It is owned by Delhi Guest House Private Ltd (DGHPL).

A portion of the property has been rented out to Max India for use by its chairman at a monthly rent of Rs 1,000. Analjit Singh is the chairman of both Max India Pvt Ltd and DGHPL, so he effectively has possession over the property.

Bhai Mohan Singh and his wife Avtar Singh had three sons — Manjit, Analjit and Parvinder Singh. Parvinder Singh, the oldest, has passed away. He is succeeded by wife Nimmi Singh and sons — Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh.

Manjit Singh claimed that the Aurangzeb Road property was an integral part of the family settlement arrived at among Mohan Singh, his wife and his three sons.

He said his parents held 66 per cent of the shares in DGHPL, and according to the settlement he was entitled to a third of it.