Dr. Rajan Mahtani is a happy man now. After numerous case proceedings, several discussions, court wars across two different courts, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has finally won the long-pending case of Portland Cement Zambia. The case started after Dr. Rajan Mahtani claimed that the factory was illegally taken over from him and after that a case was launched at the Lusaka High Court. As a result of the various disadvantages and limitations of the court and legal system of Zambia, the case stretched for more than a decade. Despite sharing numerous evidences and testimonials, the final outcome of the case was outrageous. The case was being handled by justice Nkonde during that time and the final decision from the judge was controversial. According to this judgement, Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.
To counter this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the case the Court of Appeal, which is one of the highest level legal and judiciary systems in Zambia. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who shared the final judgement on 31st January 2019. The decision was given after looking into all evidences and testimonials which were conveniently avoided by the Lusaka High Court judge. According to the decision given by the Court of Appeal judge, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this shareholding pattern, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.
A timeline of three months from the date of the judgement has been given by the judge at the Court of Appeal during which all share sales related activities must be completed by both parties.