Rajendra Lodha, engaged in a legal battle with the Birlas for the control of M P Birla group, earned a reprieve when the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed a lower court not to take action in a criminal matter against him till the matter was heard by it on January 11.

Justice P N Sinha, who had been assigned the matter after another judge expressed his unwillingness to hear it, passed the order when the case came up for hearing.

The lower court is directed not to take any action till the matter comes before it for hearing on the next date, the judge said in his order.

Birlas had earlier filed a criminal case against Lodha and three others at the SDJM, Alipur, alleging they had committed a fraud on Priyamvada Birla, who by her purported will had bequeathed the entire assets to him. The matter was fixed for hearing on January 8.

Lodha's associate S N Prasad, however, had moved the High Court for quashing of criminal proceedings against him, Lodha, Gauri Shankar and S K Daga before the lower court.

The matter had been originally assigned to Justice D P Sengupta but in his absence it was first heard by Justice S P Mitra on December 8 when he stayed the proceedings before the SDJM court till December 16.

Birla vs Lodha: War over a will

Subsequently, Justice Sengupta heard the matter for three days but after that expressed unwillingness to further hear it citing 'compelling circumstances' without giving details.

The three days of hearing witnessed bitter exchanges between counsels from both sides with noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani along with S K Kapur arguing for Birlas and Pradip Ghosh and Joymalya Bagchi for Lodha.

The criminal case before SJDM had been filed by Rajinder Prasad Pansari on behalf of Birlas. Birlas and Lodha are already engaged in civil suits disputing the authenticity of different wills of M P Birla and his widow Priyamvada Birla.

Lodha, a chartered accountant of the M P Birla group had claimed Priyamvada Birla had bequeathed the entire assets to him by a purported will made in 1999.

Birlas, however, claim the entire assets should go to the charities as per a joint will by M P Birla and Priyamvada Birla made in 1982.