A little over three years since a single judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court passed an order directing the removal of Harsh Vardhan Lodha as the chairman of the MP Birla Group on the basis of a questionable concept of “extended estate”
Representation image [File Photo]
A little over three years since a single judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court passed an order directing the removal of Harsh Vardhan Lodha as the chairman of the MP Birla Group on the basis of a questionable concept of “extended estate”, a division Bench of the high court on Thursday passed a 300-page verdict, unequivocally ruling that the lower court could not have interfered with the functioning of the companies, trusts and societies of the MP Birla Group.
Thursday’s verdict delivered by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya conclusively answers the question whether or not Harsh Lodha could continue to act as the chairman of the MP Birla Group. “There cannot be universal or dynamic injunction or direction affecting the future course of action of the companies from the testamentary court,” the two judges said in their judgment, referring to the disputed verdict of the single judge of Calcutta High Court passed on 18 September 2020.
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The court could not do so “simply because the testatrix (Priyamvada Devi Birla) could not herself have taken such an action in law,” the Bench added. The estate of the late Priyamvada Devi Birla, former chairperson of the MP Birla Group who died on 3 July 2004, is currently under the custody of a three-member committee of administrators. She had bequeathed her estate to her trusted advisor and confidante, Rajendra Singh Lodha, through a registered will dated 18 April 1999. After her death, R S Lodha became the chairman of the MP Birla Group. Several members of the extended Birla family challenged the late Priyamvada Birla’s will.
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