Calcutta, Oct. 20: Harsh Vardhan Lodha is set to become the chairman of Birla Corporation, the flagship of the MP Birla empire, after a favourable Company Law Board judgment yesterday, even as the Birla camp gets ready to challenge the order in Calcutta High Court.

The Birla Corporation board will meet on October 23 and is likely to decide on filling the post left vacant by Harsh’s father Rajendra Singh Lodha, who died a year ago in London at the residence of Basant Kumar Birla.

However, the Birlas are not losing hope. “There is no question of letting it go. We will fight it out. We will move the high court in a day or two,” said a Birla confidant.

The Birla family and the Lodhas have been fighting a legal battle over the Rs 5,000-crore MP Birla empire that Priyamvada Birla bequeathed to R.S. Lodha through a will made in 1999.

The Birla family, led by Basant Kumar Birla, had opposed it and presented their own version of a will, which said Madhav Prasad and Priyamvada wanted their assets to go to charity.

However, R.S. Lodha assumed chairmanship of all MP Birla group companies after Priyamvada’s death.

For the last one year, the board of Birla Corporation had been selecting a chairman for each of its meetings instead of appointing a permanent one.

The CLB judgment cleared the way for the board to choose Harsh, a director of Birla Corporation with a 62.90 per cent economic interest in the company, as chairman.

The company’s adjourned annual general meeting will take place on October 27.