NEW DELHI: In an ongoing Oberoi group family inheritance tussle, Anastasia Oberoi, daughter of late PRS Oberoi, moved a fresh plea in the Delhi High Court seeking stay on various agendas, including retirement and re-appointment of her siblings Vikramjit Singh Oberoi, Natasha Oberoi and cousin Arjun Singh Oberoi as directors of Oberoi Hotels and Oberoi Properties, in the Annual General Meeting that is scheduled for Tuesday (November 5).
She has also sought a direction to her siblings to maintain status quo on the board of directors of the two companies till the final disposal of the case.
The HC will hear the case at 10 Am on Tuesday.
The dispute is over control of the family’s substantial holdings in EIH Ltd, which manages the Oberoi and Trident hotel chains.
Anastasia also wants the HC to take appropriate action against Oberoi hotel group COO Rajaraman Shankar for “disobedience” of the September 12 order and “insisting on exercising voting right and participating” in the November 5 AGM of the two companies which allegedly is in violation of the HC order.
The HC had in September clarified that for other agenda items, Shankar will not be deemed to be present in such general meetings while exercising his rights as a holder of the Class A share.
In an interim order, the HC had then also held that shares in EIH Ltd, Oberoi Hotels and Oberoi Properties held by the late PRS Oberoi can’t change hands. The order was passed on a petition by Anastasia against her siblings.
According to her, the new draft of AGM notices has changed and now provided for retirement of all directors, including her, Shankar and her sister Natasha, purportedly in terms of the Articles of Associations of the companies and for reappointment of directors in place of the retiring directors.
“This is contrary to the prior practice followed by the companies in this regard. However, after passing of the order on September 12, the position has since been changed and the Defendant No.1 (Shankar) and Defendant No. 3 to 8 (Natasha, EIH Ltd, Vikramjit, Arjun, Oberoi Hotels and Oberoi Properties) are now creating a situation that was not contemplated on September 12 i.e. to retire the plaintiff (Anastasia) as director and put her re-appointment to vote,” the application stated.
“Under the statutory scheme in terms of Section 152(7) of the Companies Act 2013 and principles analogous thereto, all directors shall be deemed to be reappointed if Shankar complies with the September 12 order and does not participate in the agenda items,” she said.
Anastasia has a “strong prima facie case and being entitled to the class-A shares bequeathed to her, and has an inherent right of participation in the family companies. However, due to the illegal actions on the part of the defendants, in particular, the false and fabricated claims raised by Vikramjit and Arjun, the transmission in favour of plaintiffs (Anastasia and her mother Mirjana Jojic) is not yet complete and the plaintiffs have been constrained to file the present suit seeking to protect their rights and interests in relation to the bequests under the Will of Late PRS Oberoi,” it added.
Anastasia had earlier moved the High Court alleging that her siblings were attempting to obstruct the execution of her father’s will.
She and her mother, while seeking permanent restraint orders related to the estate of PRS Oberoi, who died on November 14 last year, also accused Vikramjit and Arjun of conspiring with the executors appointed by their late father and attempting to interfere with their right to “peaceful enjoyment of the immovable properties.”
Vikramjit and Arjun had contested the genuineness of the October 2021 will read with codicil of 2022 presented by Anastasia and her mother and had instead submitted a will of March 20, 1992, of the testator. They had contended that the testator did not have any right, title or interest in the shares held by him in Oberoi Hotels.
They had challenged the maintainability of the suit filed by Anastasia in terms of the settlement that had been arrived at between the testator (PRS Oberoi) and his father, Rai Bahadur MS Oberoi. The shares of Oberoi Hotels and Oberoi Properties were held by the testator in trust for Vikramjit and Arjun and were to devolve upon the death of the testator on Vikramjit and Arjun, they said.
