Hyderabad: In an attempt to help the contesting parties to arrive at an amicable settlement, the Supreme Court has decided to refer the dispute between a mother and her three daughters for the management control of Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Biological E.The privately held company was founded by late Vijay Kumar Datla. After his demise, his wife and his daughters are engaged in a bitter succession feud.
Dealing with their petition, the Hyderabad High Court had recently appointed an adhoc committee — having all four contestants — to run the company.However, the contesting parties have approached the Supreme Court to seeking to set aside the High Court order. While dealing with their appeal, the apex court has suggested the names of two former judges of Supreme Court, Justice P.V. Reddy and Justice R.V. Raveendran, who may be appointed as mediators to mediate the dispute between them and help them in settling the issue amicably in the larger interest of the company and the workmen.
A two member bench comprising Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice C. Nagappan, said “having regard to the relationship between the parties — the daughters and the mother — in relation to a public limited company, where life saving drugs are manufactured and more than 2,000 employees are working, we are deemed it appropriate to refer the matter for mediation.”
As both parties accepted for the mediation, the bench directed the registry to send a letter seeking consent of both the former judges to conduct mediation.The bench requested the mediators to mediate the dispute between the parties as expeditiously as possible as but not later than six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and send their report.
