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Case file s375 · India and South Asia · 2002
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2002
Died
6 July 2002
Place
Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai · India
Field
business (Reliance) · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
Indian law; Bombay High Court and Supreme Court of India
Historical event
India's private-sector boom; the 2010 gas price ruling; 2024-2026 fraud cases
India and South AsiaDied without a willBrothers and sisters in courtNowSouth AsiaIndiaAmbani family
AI illustration: An oil refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, lit up at night
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Dhirubhai Ambani died without a will; one son became Asia's richest man and the other told a court he was worth zero

Dhirubhai Ambani founded Reliance and built it into one of India's largest groups. He died at 69 with no will and no succession plan. His sons, Mukesh and Anil, ran the group together. In November 2004 Mukesh publicly acknowledged differences with Anil. On 18 June 2005 their mother, Kokilaben, announced a split. Mukesh took Reliance Industries and IPCL. Anil took Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital. The brothers then fought over gas from Mukesh's fields that a family agreement had promised to Anil's power company at $2.34 per unit. The Bombay High Court ruled for Anil in 2009. On 7 May 2010 the Supreme Court reversed 2 to 1: the family agreement did not bind the company, and the government set the price, $4.20. In February 2020 Anil told a London court his net worth was "zero" after liabilities. In May 2020 he was ordered to pay three Chinese banks $716.9 million. In August 2024 India's market regulator, SEBI, banned him from the securities market for five years and fined him ₹25 crore. In 2025 the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate opened fraud and money-laundering cases against him and his former companies, and in February 2026 the CBI registered a new ₹2,220 crore case and searched his home. In 2026 Mukesh is Asia's richest person, at $99.7 billion on the Forbes list.

What the law took from it

A founder with no will or plan leaves control to his children's negotiation; the split decided which son kept the businesses that generate cash.

Sources
  1. tribuneindia.comPress
  2. legallyindia.comPress
  3. theweek.inPress
  4. moneylife.inPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Dhirubhai Ambani died without a will; one son became Asia's richest man and the other told a court he was worth zero,” story s375, https://www.celebrity.estate/asia-2002, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

India and South AsiaDied without a willBrothers and sisters in courtNowSouth AsiaIndiaAmbani family