Negotiations between Bajaj brothers fail

Leading industrialist Rahul Bajaj failed to arrive at a settlement with his brother Shishir Bajaj on the division of the empire within the time allotted by the Company Law Board (CLB).

The brothers today sought some more time from the principal bench of CLB.

Counsels representing Rahul and Shishir Bajaj today informed the bench that the two brothers have not been able to arrive at an out-of-court settlement, however, adding that they would carry on negotiations to settle the matter. Accepting it, the CLB chairman S Balasubramanian adjourned the matter to the third week of October.

The case would now again come up before CLB on October 22, when the two brothers are expected to report about the outcome of their negotiations.

If they fail to reach a settlement by then, CLB would resume its scheduled procedure and hear the case for three consecutive days from October 23-25, as the four-year-old case has reached the final stages of argument.

Senior Counsel and former Attorney General Ashok Desai, representing Rahul Bajaj, hoped that by October the brothers would reach a settlement.

"October is a season between Dussehra and Deepawali... Is a season of good will. So we will try again in that period," Desai said.

CLB had resumed the case proceedings on August 29 after a gap of nearly six months, following a direction of the Bombay High Court. However, the board had adjourned the matter in the last two days on the request of the two sides.

In March this year, admitting an application by the Shishir camp, CLB had stayed all board meetings of the two holding companies "� Bajaj Sevashram and Jamnalal Sons.

Later, after mutual consent of the two sides, the Bombay High Court asked CLB to go ahead with the matter and fix a new date for hearing the case.