The Bombay high court has lifted the Company Law Board's indefinite stay on all board meetings of Bajaj group holding companies.
Thursday's high court order would pave the way for the Bajaj group holding companies Bajaj Sevashram and Jamnalal Sons to convene board meetings soon after the next Company Law Board hearing scheduled for May-end is over, sources said.
The Bajaj family, which had begun discussions on a split in 2002, had run into additional problems over group ownership that ranged Shishir Bajaj and his son Kushagra against Shishir's brother and group patriarch Rahul Bajaj and his cousins Shekhar, Madhur and Neeraj (see chart).
The board meetings of Bajaj Sevashram and Jamnalal Sons are expected to discuss board representation of the Rahul Bajaj faction in both companies that control shares in all Bajaj group companies.
"The holding companies realised that the Company Law Board stay on board meetings had wider ramifications. The Company Law Board stayed the board meetings indefinitely so the holding companies approached the Bombay High Court to vacate the stay," sources said.
Significantly, Shishir Bajaj agreed in the high court to convene a board meeting, thus indicating that both sides are willing to find a solution to the ownership issues.
On March 13, the Company Law Board had stayed the board meetings of Bajaj Sevashram and Jamnalal Sons, which hold all the assets of the Bajaj group following a plea from the Shishir faction. However, the Company Law Board's blanket ban brought the operations of both holding companies to a standstill.
The Shishir camp had, in fact, sought a ban on the induction of two representatives of the Rahul Bajaj faction in the five-member board of Bajaj Sevashram and one in the four-member