Calcutta High Court modifies the extent of Priyamvada Birla estate

The Harsh Lodha side claimed that the ruling was 'firmly' in its favour

In the 19-year-old Birla-Lodha battle of wills, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday modified the extent of the estate of Priyamvada Birla and laid down the powers of the APL (Administrators Pendente Lite) committee.
 

The Harsh Lodha side claimed the ruling was “firmly” in its favour.
 

A single-judge Bench of the High Court had passed an order directing the removal of Harsh Vardhan Lodha from the positions he held in the various companies, trusts and societies of the M P Birla group on the basis of an “extended estate” of Priyamvada Birla, said Debanjan Mandal, managing partner, Fox & Mandal, advocate for Harsh Lodha.
 

“Today’s order effectively clears the cloud over the continuance of Harsh Lodha as chairman, director and trustee of the M P Birla group companies, trusts and societies,” he added.
 

N G Khaitan, senior partner, Khaitan & Co, from the Birla side, said the appeal court had modified the order of the single judge to a limited extent -- partly in favour of the appellant and partly in favour of the respondent.
 

However, he added that the order of the single judge restraining Harsh Vardhan Lodha from holding any office in any of the entities in the M P Birla group had not been modified by the appeal court and the restraint on Lodha still continued.

 

An appeal by the Birla side is likely to be filed in the Supreme Court against the part of the order modifying the extent of the estate of Priyamvada Birla.
 

The Division Bench held that the extent of the estate of Priyamvada Birla is limited to the shares held by her. Earlier court orders had said the estate had controlling interest in various companies, trusts and societies.
 

On the issue of the powers of the APL Committee, the Bench said it stepped into the shoes of the deceased testatrix — nothing more, nothing less. Thus, it cannot exercise powers which the testatrix herself did not have during her lifetime.
 

“The charisma or personal influence of the deceased might have helped her in carrying out her will in the affairs of the companies, but do not comprise of tangible incidents of her property or estate,” the order mentioned.
 

The APL Committee, appointed in 2012 by the Calcutta High Court to administer the estate of Priyamvada Birla, has been in focus the past few years. In 2019, the APL Committee opposed Lodha’s reappointment in M P Birla group companies.
 

The Division Bench in its order on Thursday said the APL Committee could not interfere with all internal affairs of the companies of all the tiers with the blessings of the testamentary (probate) court.
 

Khaitan, however, pointed to the part of the order that said the third member of the APL Committee, a retired judge of the high court, had been permitted to exercise a veto power for the effective administration of the estate in the case of conflict of decisions between the two members of the APL Committee.