MUMBAI: Intervening in the dispute over two warring groups of the Gandhi family over the popular ice-cream brand Vadilal, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday restrained the Ahmedabad branch of the family from interfering with the Mumbai branch’s continued use of the Vadilal brand name for manufacturing, selling and distributing ice cream and juices in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), as agreed in a March 1993 family settlement.HC allows warring family faction to use Vadilal brand name for ice-creamsA single judge bench of justice Amit Borkar also restrained the Ahmedabad branch, which owns Vadilal International Pvt Ltd, from creating any third party rights or otherwise dealing with the purportedly exclusive rights of the Mumbai branch, which owns Vadilal Dairy International Ltd.Led by Shailesh R Gandhi, the Mumbai branch filed an arbitration petition after the Ahmedabad group issued a communication dated May 26, 2026, purporting to terminate the registered user agreement and the irrevocable power of attorney executed in favour of the Mumbai group, as part of a March 1993 family settlement.In its petition, the Mumbai group claimed that under the 1993 family settlement, they were granted permanent and irrevocable rights to exclusively use the Vadilal brand name in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and undivided Andhra Pradesh in lieu of giving up its shareholding in Vadilal International Pvt Ltd and other group companies. Apprehending a threat to its continued use of the Vadilal brand name, it also urged the court to protect it with interim orders during pendency of the arbitral proceedings.The Ahmedabad branch, on the other hand, maintained that the Mumbai branch repeatedly violated quality control obligations as per the registered user agreement and repeated microbiological testing disclosed contamination in several products it manufactured. Beginning in September 2025, several notices were issued to the Mumbai branch, calling upon them to remove the defects, but the breaches continued.The Ahmedabad group submitted that Vadilal International Pvt Ltd, controlled by them, owned the trademark and was responsible for protecting not only its goodwill but also the consumer confidence associated with the brand. Once laboratory reports indicated the presence of contamination, the company could not remain inactive, as every defective product sold under the Vadilal trademark had the potential to damage the reputation of the brand across the country, it said.The court agreed and said that the concerns deserve consideration and cannot be brushed aside, but preserving the subject-matter with the least risk of irreversible prejudice was necessary. It clarified that if interim relief was refused to the Mumbai branch and the arbitral tribunal ultimately held it entitled to continued use of the Vadilal brand, restoring the present position could become extremely difficult.“By that stage, the petitioners (the Mumbai group) may have been compelled to withdraw products available in the market, replace packaging, discontinue advertising material, modify dealership arrangements, change distribution systems and educate consumers regarding a new identity,” the court said.“Dealers may shift to competing products. Consumers may lose familiarity with the petitioners’ products. Shelf space in the market may be occupied by competitors. Business relationships developed over decades may come to an end,” the court noted while passing the interim order, restraining the Ahmedabad branch from acting in furtherance of the communication dated May 26, 2026.