Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani Winner Of Long-Pending Portland Cement Zambia Case

After more than a decade of waiting, patience as well as perseverance, Dr. Rajan Mahtani finally won the critical case of Portland Cement Zambia. This case was won at the Court of Appeal, the second court where the case was registered. Before this, Dr. Rajan Mahtani had approached the Lusaka High Court claiming that his factory was illegally taken over from him. After registering the case, Dr. Rajan Mahtani shared numerous evidences, testimonials and factual data before the court in response to his claims. Despite these strong evidences, Dr. Rajan Mahtani was not given justice. After more than a decade of case proceedings, the judge from the Lusaka High Court gave the final judgement for the case, albeit a controversial one. According to this final judgement, Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia case. This decision was extremely misdirected and as a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the right decision of approaching the Court of Appeal.

The judge from the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde, who gave the final decision on the case on 31st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to this final decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership over the factory. This decision from the Court of Appeal also aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.

While giving this decision, justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders as this decision was misdirected and without any evidence and the judge was condemned for his decision.