Calcutta High Court rules in favour of Harsh Vardhan Lodha continuing as M.P. Birla Group Chairman

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday ruled in favour of Harsh Vardhan Lodha as the Chairman of the M.P. Birla Group.

A division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya also barred the administrators to Priyamvada Devi Birla’s estate from interfering with day-to-day operations of companies.

A little over three years back, a single judge had passed an order directing the removal of Lodha as the Chairman of the M.P. Birla Group on the basis of a questionable concept of "extended estate".

The matter was challenged and the division bench on Thursday delivered 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 M.P. 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 bench said in their judgment, referring to the disputed verdict of the single judge of Calcutta High Court passed on September 18, 2020.

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.

Thursday’s verdict imposed several restrictions on the functioning of the committee of administrators, which, in the past few years, have taken several decisions by 2:1 majority and pressured companies, trusts and societies of the M.P. Birla Group to implement them, a statement issued by the company claimed.

Expressing deepest satisfaction over the verdict, Debanjan Mandal, partner, Fox & Mandal, the solicitor firm representing the Lodhas, said his client wishes to place on record his deepest gratitude to the judiciary and faith in it as the final protector of civil rights.