Harsh Vardhan Lodha to continue as MP Birla Group chairman: Calcutta High Court

Kolkata: A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday ruled in favour of Harsh Vardhan Lodha continuing as chairman of MP Birla Group and reportedly barred the administrators to Priyamvada Devi Birla’s Estate from interfering with day-to-day operations of companies.

The decision came a little over three years since a single judge 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”,

In a 300-page verdict, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya unequivocally ruled that the lower court could not have interfered with the functioning of the companies, trusts and societies of the MP Birla Group.

In their verdict, the two judges clarified that the administrators cannot interfere with the internal affairs of companies, trusts and societies. The remit of the administrators only extends to the shares owned by the late Priyamvada Birla, the division bench said.

The estate of the late Priyamvada Devi Birla, former chairperson of the MP Birla Group who died on July 3, 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, kicking off a protracted legal battle straddling various courts and judicial forums. Harsh Lodha is the son of the late Rajendra Singh Lodha. The latter died on October 3, 2008.

Debanjan Mandal, partner, Fox & Mandal law firm, said: “Our client wishes to place on record his deepest gratitude to the judiciary and faith in it as the final protector of civil rights. In the past five years, relentless attacks were mounted on Harsh Lodha and certain other directors and trustees of the MP Birla Group on the basis of a convoluted interpretation of the late Priyamvada Birla’s Estate…”

Pointing out that 19 years have passed since the legal battle over the late Priyamvada Birla’s will started at the Calcutta High Court, the Division Bench on Thursday directed that the trial in the probate petition—or the one to establish the will’s legal validity—should resume at the earliest.