Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s Approach Of Appealing To The Higher Court Of Appeal Pays Off, Wins Case


Despite the several difficulties and challenges faced, Dr. Rajan Mahtani never left his struggle for gaining back ownership of his company, Portland Cement Zambia. The case was registered, more than a decade ago, at the Lusaka High Court. However, the final verdict from Lusaka High Court was controversial and Dr. Mahtani was not given justice.

Then Dr. Rajan Mahtani decided that lower courts will not do it and thus, approached the higher Court of Appeal. The judgement at the higher Court of Appeal was quick, consistent with the evidences and was extremely transparent. Justice Mwinde gave a quick verdict on 31st January 2019, within a timespan of around nine months. The verdict was transparent as most of the evidences were shared with the public so that there are no chances of confusion, miscommunication and suspicion. For instance, one of the evidences proved that Dr. Rajan Mahtani paid a sum of one billion kwachas, equivalent to USD 250,000 to the Zambezi Portland Cement limited in the year 2005. This amount covered the entire share capital value associated with the shares which Dr. Rajan Mahtani took over. Furthermore, the judge at the Court of Appeal also shared the details of the original shareholders agreement established on 26th February 2007. In this shareholders agreement, page number 663 clearly established the fact that Dr. Rajan Mahtani made all payments associated with the takeover of the 58 percent shares at the factory and thus, has been officially regarded as the primary shareholder or majority shareholder of the factory. The shareholder’s agreement also clarified that the payment was made by Finsbury Investments, a company owner by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Since the shareholders agreement, as the name suggests, is an agreement accepted by all major shareholders associated with the factory, it is now established that the payment made by Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani was known to all and the fact that he is now the majority shareholder was also accepted and signed by all in the written agreement.