Mumbai: Harsh Vardhan Lodha, who has struggled for nearly a decade to retain control of the Birla Corp. cement company and the MP Birla group companies, will now be removed with immediate effect from all positions in the company, according to a court order Upper Calcutta. today. The probate court said Lodha, chairman of the group’s flagship firm Birla Corp., has been acting against the interests of Priyamvada Birla’s estate, a person said at the court hearing. mint.
This order is a significant victory for the extended Birla family, who are challenging the legal validity of Priyamvada Birla’s will. The two parties have been embroiled in a 16-year legal battle over the will where Priyamvada Birla bequeathed her estate and control of the (now) ₹25,000 crore MP Birla empire to his chartered accountant RS Lodha and his second son Harsh Vardhan Lodha.
With the latest high court order, Lodha will be removed as chairman of the group’s flagship company, Birla Corp., and as a director on the boards of other MP Birla companies, including listed companies Vindhya Telelinks Ltd, Birla Cables Ltd and Universal. Cables Ltd. in May, a two-judge divisional court of the Calcutta High Court had allowed Lodha’s re-election as a rotating director in some of the group companies mentioned above. Lodha was also specifically entitled to a commission related to the profits in these companies, which was approved by special resolution at the recent annual general meetings of the companies. The Birla family had challenged this appointment in the Supreme Court shortly thereafter, but their petition was dismissed. The superior court redirected the case to the superior court.
In Friday’s order, the court said that all majority decisions made by the administrator appointed by the pendente lite court (the APL committee, or a committee of administrators appointed in 2012) will be binding on Lodha and that he will be bound to implement them. In separate orders in 2019 and 2020, the committee had ordered the removal of Lodha from the boards of these companies and had refused to endorse the payment of any remuneration linked to earnings, but these decisions were not implemented.
“These instructions mean that Harsh Vardhan Lodha immediately ceases to hold all positions in MP Birla Group, including director in companies and other positions in trusts and partnerships of the MP Birla Group,” said a statement from the Birla family. The court held that since the companies are not parties to the probate proceedings, no instructions can be issued against them, but the decisions of the trustees’ committee will be implemented by Lodhas, who are the plaintiffs in the probate proceedings … dominance over the MP Birla group has been terminated by the Calcutta High Court “.
“The verdict of Judge Sahidullah Munshi on the re-election of Harsh Vardhan Lodha as a director of Vindhya Telelinks Ltd and Birla Cable Ltd does not appear to be legal,” said Debanjan Mandal, partner at Fox Mandal, lawyers for Harsh Vardhan Lodha. “Our clients’ trust in the system remains completely unshakeable and our clients will defy judgment for immediate and long-term relief.”
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