Supreme Court refers matrimonial dispute between Rippling's Prasanna and wife to mediation

The Supreme Court on Friday referred the matrimonial dispute between Rippling co-founder Prasanna Sankar and his wife Dhivya Sashidhar to mediation..A Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal appointed retired Madras High Court Justice N Kirubakaran as the mediator and requested him to facilitate a discussion between the parties with a view to exploring the possibility of an amicable resolution of the disputes between them.The mediation will happen on May 15 at Chennai since both parties are currently based out of Chennai, the Court said..A thread on X (formerly Twitter) by the tech co-founder recently had gone viral in March. In the tweets, Sankar accused his wife of filing false cases in a bid to abduct their son and take him out of the country.Sankar claimed that the Tamil Nadu police were continuously harassing him and trying to take his son away from him owing to a false kidnapping complaint filed by his wife.Sankar then approached the Madras High Court claiming that the harassment was triggered by a false and malicious complaint by his wife, whom he accused of filing several similar baseless criminal complaints in the past in the US and in Singapore.According to the petition, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was executed between Sankar and his estranged wife in February. The MoU's terms included that the couple would get a divorce by mutual consent and share joint custody of the child.It was also agreed that the family would reside in Chennai and that the child's travel documents would be secured in a joint locker.He added that his estranged wife came to Chennai along with the child after this MoU and that the child was handed over to him voluntarily on March 3.After that, his wife allegedly filed a false complaint against him. He also claimed that his wife violated the MoU by refusing to deposit their child's travel documents in a joint locker.Sashidhar meanwhile refuted her husband's claims and reportedly said that she filed the kidnapping complaint only to trace the whereabouts of their son.The High Court on March 27 disposed of Sankaranarayanan's plea after it issued guidelines instructing the police to refrain from harassing anyone during investigations.Sasidhar then filed a Habeas Corpus petition before the apex court.In her plea before the top court, she alleged breach of privacy and "illegal retention" of her minor son by Sankar. She also accused him of disclosing her contact details on social media.She said that she has not been able to meet the child for the last two months and sought direction to immediately restore physical and virtual access between the mother and child.She also contended that statutory bodies under the Ministry of Women failed to take any action despite repeated representations.It was also alleged that the minor child aged 9 has been coached to falsely believe that his mother has abandoned him.It was also pointed out that the Tamil Nadu police issued an advisory on April 25 refuting the claims made by Prasanna that police had demanded money from him to release his staff Gokul Krishnan..The Court after considering the arguments of both sides referred the matter for mediation..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal with advocates Shivika Mehra, Riddhi Jad, Anupriya Srivastava, Ketan Paul, Kiran Gaur and Sumedha Ray Sarkar appeared for Sashidhar.Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra along with advocates Aadarsh Kothari, Shivani Luthra Lohiya, Anuj Singh, Rishabh Dahiya and Shagufa Salim appeared for Prasanna..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.