Portland Cement Zambia is a long-pending case at the Lusaka High Court. It was registered by Dr. Rajan Mahtani almost 10 years ago and the court has not been able to provide any judgment or final verdict. During the trial of the case, the judges got transferred or were unable to take the case anymore due to different reasons. Many other times, one or more critical members from both sides were unable. All these issues resulted in this long stretch of the case, making it one of the longest pending high-profile corporate cases.
During the trial, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has submitted numerous evidences. Some of the critical evidences included signed shareholder’s agreement, financial exhibits, testimonials as well as audit report conducted by an independent auditor which clearly stated that Dr. Rajan Mahtani was the sole joint venture partner of the factory and its rightful owner. The judge current residing the case recently made a positive move when he announced that the case hearing was closed and both parties needed to submit their evidences all at once, in written and oral format. After reviewing the evidences, the judge was supposed to provide final verdict.
However, the final verdict which was announced few weeks earlier shocked everyone. The judge announced the results against Dr. Mahtani, even though almost all of the documents clearly stated him as the sole joint venture partner and owner of the factory. While this judgment has certainly shocked Dr. Mahtani and surprised all those awaiting the judgement, Dr. Mahtani is not bogged down and has made an appeal to the ‘higher court’ against the judgment given at the Lusaka High Court. In his appeal, he has stated that the judgement was misdirected and none of the evidences shared by Dr. Rajan Mahtani were considered by the judge. Response from the higher court is awaited now.