Kishore Chhabria gets breather in row with Vijay Mallya

After being pushed to the wall by Vijay Mallya in the legal dispute over ownership of BDA Ltd, Kishore Chhabria got a breather on Friday when a Calcutta High Court judge, Aniruddh Ghosh, refused to take up the matter due to “personal reason.”

The case would now be assigned a new judge by the Chief Justice and the next hearing is expected to be held on December 27-28.

The development comes as breather to Chhabria, who has been hemmed in by legal cases relating to brands and ownership of BDA Ltd whose liquor business was transferred to his company Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt Ltd (ABD) in 2007.

He recently lost a trademark case in the Supreme Court relating to the right of John Distillery Ltd to continue to use the trademark Original Choice.

And now, Mallya-owned United Spirits Ltd (USL), which has been engaged in a legal battle with Chhabria since 1992, has moved the Calcutta High Court to restrain ABD — owned 100% by Chhabria and family — from raising funds in the market.

Recently, ABD announced it was planning to divest 10% stake to raise Rs250 crore to fund its expansion.

This, according to USL’s legal head Lalit Gupta, would alter the shareholding pattern of ABD and complicate the pending case relating to the ownership of BDA whose liquor business is now under Chhabria’s ABD.

USL’s Gupta said the principal allegation in the suit is that in breach of his fiduciary duty Chhabria has caused the assets of Shaw Wallace and its subsidiaries to be dealt with in a manner prejudicial to the interests of Shaw Wallace and its subsidiaries to make personal gain — in particular, the valuable ownership and control of BDA Ltd, the manufacturer of Officers Choice brand of whisky.   

   
He said since the ownership of BDA was still in dispute, any dilution of stake by Chhabria and family would change its equity holding pattern and may have a far reaching impact on the course of the case.
“If they (Chhabria) bring in a third independent party and the case goes in our favour, then the third party can dispute that it is not binding to them. It was necessary for us to bring this to the court’s notice,” said the USL’s legal expert.
Mallya’s liquor company is also actively pursuing another suit in the Delhi High Court, originally filed by Shaw Wallace, seeking return of the Officers Choice trademark.
ABD currently sells 15 million cases Officers Choice every year.