SC dismisses petitions by Birlas as withdrawn

The Supreme Court today dismissed as withdrawn petitions by the Birlas challenging a Calcutta High Court judgement quashing a single judge order appointing joint administrators for controlling a block of shares held by late Priyamvada Birla in four Birla group firms.

The four companies -- East India Investment Co Pvt Ltd, Gwalior Webbing Co Pvt Ltd, Baroda Agents and Trading Co Ltd and Punjab Produce Holdings Ltd -- control the majority shares in five manufacturing companies, including flagship company Birla Corporation.A bench headed by Justice S B Sinha dismissed the three petitions as withdrawn in view of its earlier judgement.

The court on March 31 had dismissed three petitions filed by Birla family members against the High Court order that denied them the right to raise objections to late Priyamvada Birla's 1999 Will. It had held that K K Birla, B K Birla and Yashovardhan Birla were not the heirs of M P Birla and Priyamvada and they have no caveatable interests.

It had also dismissed another petition filed by Birlas' challenging her Chartered Accountant R S Lodha's right to object to M P Birla and his wife Priyamvada's 1982 Will, through which the couple left their property for charity.

However, through a purportedly revised 1999 Will after her husband's death, Priyamvada had bequeathed her Rs 5,000 crore estate to Lodha. The three dismissed petitions filed by Radha Devi Mohatta (sister of M P Birla), Ajay Kumar Newar (nephew of M P Birla) and Ganga Prasad Birla (M P Birla's cousin) had stated that the presumption that executor appointed under the Will enjoyed the confidence of the testator had been shaken as the executor himself was a beneficiary and the will was oddly unnatural.