The ongoing legal battle over the control of MP Birla Group is spilling over into the boardroom of the companies following an order of the division bench of Calcutta High Court last month.

The Birlas, who want to dislodge Harsh Vardhan Lodha from the control of the group, won the first round when Lodha was not allowed to participate in the board meetings of five key investment companies of the group that were held in October.

However, the score will be levelled when Lodha takes part in the board meeting of Birla Corporation, the largest company in the group by market capitalisation and revenue, on Thursday. The company will finalise its second quarter results along its fundraising plans.

A day before the meeting, the Birlas shot off letters to the key managerial persons of the company, individual directors on the board and Lodha to honour the division bench (DB) order which, according to them, has asked Lodha to stay away from the affairs of the group entities.

The Birlas argued that the division bench has not modified the single bench judgment of September, which restrained Lodha from holding any position within MP Birla group entities, which include around 22 trusts, societies and companies.

The single bench had held that the committee of administrator pendent lite (APL Committee), appointed by the court to oversee the estate of late Priyamvada Birla, is in control of the group.

The APL committee has been recommending since 2019 that Lodha be ousted from all the listed manufacturing companies including Birla Corp. A Birla family member went to court to ensure the implementation of the committee decision.

Mohit Shah, a retired judge and a member of the APL committee, is the chairman of all investment companies. Sources say he cited the division bench order to bar Lodha.

Lodha, ironically, will flaunt the same division bench order to take part in the Birla Corp board meet. He also chaired the board meeting of a wholly owned subsidiary of Birla Corp and the audit committee of the board in the run-up to the November 5 meeting, apart from a meeting of Bombay Hospital.

Lodha argued that the DB had paved the way for him to continue on the boards of all the entities of the group as the restriction on Lodha would be “on the strength of the shares referable to the estate of Priyamvada Birla”. Lodha says such a number would be 1,260 shares, only a fraction of the promoter holding in the firms.

“What happened in the investment companies is patently illegal,” said Debanjan Mandal, partner, Fox & Mandal. “We are taking necessary steps for redress and we are confident that what we are doing is completely legal.”

The legal battle began in 2004 after Late Priyamvada died bequeathing her estate to Harsh’s father late Rajendra Lodha by a will, which the Birlas contested.