Court Registrar recuses self from property dispute after tycoon petition
By Alphonce Mungahu Kenya, September 16, 2024
A Deputy Registrar has recused herself from a case in which a tycoon is embroiled in a property dispute with his wife.
This is after the tycoon, Suresh Kantaria petitioned for the removal of the Deputy Registrar at Nairobi’s Family Division, Catherine Ng’ang’a before the Judicial Service Commission.
Kantaria has been fighting with his ex-wife Mradula over how to sell properties whose proceeds the court ordered them to share.
The two divorced in 2005 and the Court of Appeal directed in 2015 that properties in South C and Gigiri be sold and shared in a ratio of 3:1 in favour of the man.
Suresh owns two houses and a plot in Nairobi South C and another parcel of land in Gigiri in Nairobi County.
His former wife wants the properties auctioned and the proceeds held in an escrow account of her lawyers, a proposal that Suresh has vehemently opposed.
The businessman has instead proposed that the properties be evaluated to fetch the best prices at current market rates.
Suresh’s former wife Mradula is seeking implementation of the Court of Appeal judgment that directed the ex- usband to pay her Sh350,000 monthly upkeep until she dies or when she remarries.
Suresh had accused Ng’ang’a of bias and even lodged a petition before the Judicial Service Commission seeking her removal from office.
“This court is alive to the fact that there is a pending complaint against it lying with the Judicial Service Commission and also considering the fact that there is no stay on the pending settlement of the terms of sale, this court hereby recuses itself from this matter,” Ng’ang’a said in a ruling delivered on Friday.
The businessman had asked the deputy registrar to recuse herself from the matter, citing bias.
However, Ng’ang’a in her ruling said Suresh’s action of petitioning the JSC for her removal was meant to intimidate her.
“To my mind, the actions of the judgment debtor were aimed at two things, one at intimidating the court and two invariably delaying the imminent settlement of terms of sale still pending,” she said.
The matter shall now be mentioned before another deputy registrar for settlement of terms of sale on September 26. Suresh is tussling with his former wife Mradula over the manner of sale of matrimonial properties whose proceeds they were ordered to share.