The MP Birla Group is pleased to announce that resolutions supported by the management of Birla Corporation Limited, which were put to vote at the Company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday, 29 September 2021, have all been carried by overwhelming majority, and the lone resolution, moved by a shareholder with questionable intentions, has been comprehensively defeated. Many resolutions were passed with more than 99% votes cast in favour.
However, not for the first time, fraudulent attempts were made to unlawfully cast votes with the aim of subverting the professional management of Birla Corporation Limited. In the process, major crimes such as impersonation and cyber trespassing were committed by people not authorized to vote. But these frauds were detected in time and attempts at unlawful voting neutralized.
“These impostors are now liable to face prosecution for cyber trespassing, theft and misappropriation of property,” said Shri Debanjan Mandal, Partner, Fox & Mandal. “It is clear that these crimes were committed by rogue elements who stoop to new lows every year ahead of Birla Corporation Limited’s AGM.”
The boards of the companies that these impostors sought to represent have decided to take adequate legal action to make sure such crimes do not go unpunished, Shri Mandal added. Simultaneously, trustees of some societies, who are shareholders of Birla Corporation Limited, also tried to cast votes in violation of regulations. These societies attempted to vote on the basis of unlawful resolutions passed by their trustees—some of them illegally appointed in the first place—whereas regulations require decisions to be taken by the managing committees.
On the other hand, majority members of the managing committees of these societies had, in compliance with regulations, separately communicated to Birla Corporation Limited their decisions on voting. Thereafter, these trustees sought to cast votes as members of the managing committees in respect of the same set of shares held by the societies.
“In the end, such attempts also came to naught,” said Shri Mandal. Votes rejected by the scrutinizer as invalid on technical grounds would not have altered the outcome of polls if counted on either side.
A vast majority of shareholders from among financial institutions and retail investors voted overwhelmingly in support of Birla Corporation Limited’s management and helped defeat attempts to disrupt the Company’s operations. “Investors have clearly demonstrated their faith in the leadership of Chairman Harsh Vardhan Lodha,” Shri Mandal said.