Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani Remains The Majority Shareholder And Legal Owner Of The Portland Cement

The final decision on the bizarre claim by the Ventriglia family is finally out. Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani fought for the legal takeover of the Portland Cement Zambia for more than a decade. First it was Lusaka Hight Court which gave a controversial decision in which the Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. This decision was reversed ay the higher Court of Appeal which came on 31st January 2019. In this verdict, the previous Lusaka High Court decision was reversed and Dr. Mahtani was announced as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. 

After the Ventriglia family once again challenged the higher Court of Appeal’s decision, a bench of three Supreme Court judges was established at the Supreme Court Zambia. These included judge Michael Musonda, Judge Royda Kaoma and Judge Mumba Malila. After evaluation, the Supreme Court bench found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with a critical legal requirement. According to this legal requirement, all claims against previous court decisions must be made within 14 days of the court verdict. Since the decision on the Portland Cement by higher Court of Appeal came on 31st January 2019, this means the timeline for submitting the claim was by mid of February 2019. However, the Ventriglia family submitted their claim only after 1.5 years of the decision, making their claim suspicious. 

The circumstances surrounding the claim by the Ventriglia family was also controversial as there were no evidences with the Ventriglia family to support their claim. As a result of these evaluation, the Supreme Court bench came to a final conclusion and effectively rejected the claim by the Ventriglia family.