Mumbai, May 22 -- The Supreme Court earlier this week refused to interfere with a Bombay High Court order proposing the appointment of a committee of administrators to oversee the trust that runs the Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre in Bandra. The top court, however, clarified that the high court's observations in its May 7 order were "only prima facie" in nature and that "all the issues are left open" for further adjudication. A bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Ravindra Ghuge had proposed appointing administrators, observing that the operations of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKMMT) had been hampered by a bitter legal battle between rival factions of the Mehta family, which controls the trust. Permanent trustees Charu Mehta, Prashant Mehta and Rajiv Mehta then filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the high court's order. The permanent trustees told the top court that some of the facts recorded by the high court were not correct. The respondents, however, said that "by taking note of the prolonged litigation and the dispute between the parties, the high court has rightly undertaken the exercise [of proposing to appoint administrators]". The 18 respondents in the case included former trustees, the central government, HDFC Bank, the Reserve Bank of India, and the principal commissioner of income tax. While disposing of the SLP on May 18, the top court said that all issues in the case remained open....