Hearing of appeal against appointment of administrator begins

Kolkata, Jun 21 (UNI) A two-judge bench of Calcutta High Court today began hearing of auditor Rajendra Singh Lodha's appeal challenging the single bench order appointing administrators to oversee the family-run Rs 5000-crore M P Birla empire.

The hearing before the bench of Justice P C Ghosh and Justice T Dutt, however, had to be adjourned for the sudden death of a young lawyer.

The hearing is likely to resume on June 26.

On the petition of the Birla family, Justice Kalyanjyoti Sengupta appointed four administrators on May 19 to run the M P Birla business empire and stayed the order hours after when auditor Mr Lodha moved an appeal before the bench.

Later, Mr Lodha filed the appeal before the division bench of Justice Ghosh and Justice Dutt.

After M P Birla's widow Priyamvada's death by mid-2004, the Birlas and Mr Lodha were locked in a bitter legal battle when the latter disclosed that Priyamvada had bequeathed the business empire to him by her will 1999.

Not only the Birla challenged the Will before the court, they also moved criminal charges against Lodha, accusing him of lying and misusing the property of M P Birla.

UNI XC SJC VD RS1805