Lodha refused entry in Century

The Birlas have decided to keep away Rajendra S Lodha from the board of Century Textiles, the flagship company of the B.K. Birla group. The ...

The Birlas have decided to keep away Rajendra S Lodha from the board of Century Textiles, the flagship company of the B.K. Birla group. The company will not be appointing any other director in place of the late Priyamvada Birla though Lodha can claim a seat by virtue of her sizeable holding in Pilani Investments — the holding company of Birla group of companies — which has now under his belt.

Sudarshan Kumar Birla, who chaired the company’s 107th annual general meeting of shareholders here on Tuesday in the absence of Chairman BK Birla, said Priyamvada’s will is sub-judice and they will not take any action till the court gives its verdict. ‘‘The entire matter has gone to court and we will not appoint any director,’’ Birla said.

The MP Birla group holds 25 per cent stake in Pilani Investment which, in turn, has a 36 per cent holding in the Rs 2,500-crore Century Textiles.

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The AGM, which started with a one-minute silence in memory of late Century Textiles director Priyamvada Birla was attended by handful of shareholders giving the AGM venue Birla Matushree hall a deserted look.

Both Basanth Kumar Birla and Chandra Kant Birla failed to attend the meeting due to legal complications arising out of R S Lodha being appointed heir to M P Birla assets worth Rs 5,000 crore.

At the AGM, the resolution to re-appoint Priyamvada Birla as a director of the company became infructous due to her demise.

Interestingly, none of the shareholders, barring one, asked about Priyamvada’s will or the controversy.

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Birla said he will not be able to comment on the issue of Priyamvada as the matter is now before the court. Earlier just before the AGM started, SK Birla went into a huddle with noted Mumbai lawyer and a director of Century board, E B Desai. Desai later said that he is giving his personal advice to Birla on the will controversy.

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