Calcutta, June 27: Kumar Mangalam Birla, the chairman of the $29-billion AV Birla Group, has joined the legal slugfest the various Birla clans had started almost six years ago to take the M.P. Birla estate back from the Lodhas.

Kumar Birla, who had stayed clear of the battle orchestrated by his grandfather Basant Kumar Birla, has now been named as one of the plaintiffs in a civil suit filed in Calcutta High Court with four others, including Siddharth, son of Sudarshan Kumar Birla.

This is the first time the younger Birla scions are being drawn into the battle to reclaim the M.P. Birla estate, currently controlled by Harsh Vardhan Lodha.

Rajendra Singh Lodha, Harsh Vardhan’s father, had been bequeathed the estate through the disputed will of Priyamvada, M.P. Birla’s wife, that was executed in 1999.

Priyamvada died in July 2004. Four years later, R.S. Lodha died on a trip to London.

The Birlas have contended that M.P. Birla and his wife, who had no heirs, had intended to give all their wealth to charity and they are pursuing the legal battle only to fulfil that objective.

In the latest suit, Kumar Birla and the others have claimed that the late MP and Priyamvada had transferred all their assets, now worth Rs 20,000 crore, to five trusts in 1988. The beneficiaries of these trusts were three charitable institutions.

The suit seeks to establish that these trusts were irrevocable. This is a new line of argument the Birlas are taking on advice from the Delhi-based law firm, Amarchand Mangaldas.

If the court decides that these trusts were “irrevocable”, as claimed by the Birlas, the Lodhas may lose the inheritance.

Since the trusts were established long before Priyamvada’s will was executed, the Birla lawyers will argue that MP’s wife could not have scrapped the irrevocable trusts and bequeathed the entire estate to R.S. Lodha.

“If the assets were bequeathed by MP and Priyamvada to five trusts which could not be revoked, she could not have given them to RS Lodha since they were not her own,” argued one of the plaintiffs.

Kumar has filed the petition “as a family member and to ensure that the family’s assets go to charity as desired by his elders, late MP Birla and Priyamvada”.

The defendants in the case are N.K. Kejriwal, Bharat Taparia, S.N. Prasad and all the heirs of late RS Lodha – Harsh Lodha, his elder brother Aditya V. Lodha, Sushila Devi Lodha (mother of RS Lodha) and Meenakshi Beriwal. The three trusts have also been named as defendants.

In April 2008, the Birlas had suffered a setback in their legal battle against Lodha when the Supreme Court held that the two family patriarchs — Basant Kumar and Krishna Kumar Birla — as well as Yashovardan Birla had no right to contest Priyamvada’s will.

MP had brought Yash Birla under his tutelage after the latter’s father Ashok Birla died in a plane crash.

Another patriarch, Ganga Prasad Birla, was permitted to pursue the case against the Lodhas as he was the executor of MP and Priyamvada’s earlier wills of 1982. However, GP Birla died earlier this year, prompting the Birla clan to find new members who could continue to wage the battle.

Through an ownership maze, Priyamvada and MP held shares in nine manufacturing companies that were regarded as the cash cows of the group.

The Birla families contend that MP and Priyamvada had transferred their holdings in these companies through a trust deed in 1988 to five trusts: MP Birla Trust, Priyamvada Birla Trust, Priyamvada Birla Fund, Priyamvada Birla Kosh and Priyamvada Birla Nidhi.

Three charities — Hindustan Medical Institution, Eastern India Education Institution and MP Birla Foundation — were the beneficiaries of these trusts.

The Birlas have adduced five reasons why the trusts cannot be revoked:

1. They can be revoked by the settlers and MP never did that.

2. As these were mutual trusts and MP hadn’t revoked it, Priyamvada could not have done so on her own.

3. The trust deed had also limited the powers of revocation of both MP and his wife. They were obliged to create new trusts if they revoked the old ones.

4. The deed also had a proviso that “what is done cannot be undone”. This meant that if the intention was to give the wealth to charity, it could not be taken back and given to some other beneficiary.

5. If anything is given to charity, it becomes irrevocable.

Earlier, the Birlas filed a criminal case and three other suits challenging revocation of these trusts. Lodha had said these trusts were revoked three days before the will of 1999 was made.

The Birlas have accused the Lodhas of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and cheating in the manner they revoked the trusts. However, two of the defendants in the criminal suit, which is before an Alipore court, have died, weakening this part of the legal process. That is why the Birlas have opened a new flank.