Wadia, Danone dispute hearing deferred

The High Court hearing in the Wadia-Danone case, scheduled for today has been postponed as the bench hearing the case has been changed. The case was being heard by Justice SC Dharmadhikari.

The case had been filed by the Wadia group to stall French dairy major Danone's investment in Bangalore-based bio-nutritional company, Avestha Gengraine Technologies (Avesthagen).

The Wadia group sought to block this saying that the investment violated the joint venture agreement between the group and Danone. In the initial hearing on 5 December, 2006, the High Court had passed a restrain order on the shares till the next hearing which was scheduled for 12 January 2007. Justice Dharmadhikari had then postponed the hearing to today (6 February 2007).

There are also talks of Danone seeking arbitration in the matter to settle the issue. The Wadia group meanwhile, has written to the government seeking intervention citing violation of Press Note 1.