After Higher Court Of Appeal, Supreme Court Zambia Gives Decision In Favour Of Dr. Mahtani

The Portland Cement Zambia is a factory which has been taken across all levels of courts in Zambia. The first court to hear the case of Portland Cement was Lusaka High Court when Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the court with a complain. Dr. Rajan Mahtani claimed that the Portland Cement Zambia factory was unethically taken over from him. After almost a decade of case proceedings and dragging of the case, justice Nkonde gave the final decision on the case during May, 2018. However, this decision was extremely controversial as justice Nkonde announced the Ventriglia family as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. After this unfair decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final decision on 31^st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to the verdict of Court of Appeal, the decision from previous Lusaka High Court was reversed and Finsbury Investment was given majority shareholding and legal ownership over the factory. This decision was made based on the critical fact that an original shareholders agreement was established. According to this shareholding agreement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investment held 58 percent shares at the factory and was the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.

Despite an ethical and transparent decision from the higher Court of Appeal, the Ventriglia family decided to approach the Supreme Court Zambia claiming that the decision from the higher Court of Appeal was false. The Supreme Court established a bench of three judges to evaluate their claim. However, the bench found that the Ventriglia family failed to fulfil a critical legal requirement which is submitting their challenge against a previous court decision within 14 days of the court decision. Since the Ventriglia family made their appeal more than 1.5 years later, their claim was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court of Zambia.