Mumbai: Ending a long-drawn legal battle spun around Swadeshi Mills, one of the leading textile mills founded in 1890, the Bombay high court paved the way for its revival and also the development of its 48-acre Chunabhatti plot.
Both Grand View and Forbes had challenged a single Judge’s order of Feb 2026 that did not stay the winding-up proceedings ordered in Sept 2005. They claimed an “entitlement to maximise the value of their 0.073% shareholding. At best, the two shareholders would be entitled to a little over Rs 2 crore, said the HC, which said “there is more to their objection than what meets the eye.
“The revival of the company would be conducive and not detrimental to commercial morality and to the interests of the public at large,” Justices AS Gadkari and Kamal Khata held on Sept 2, as the court allowed appeals filed by Grand View Estates Pvt Ltd and Forbes & Co, which together have over 53% of the share capital in Swadeshi Mills Company Ltd, which is in liquidation. The order under challenge by the single judge gave “undue credit” to claims of two minority shareholders who had objected to the revival and development and sought a public auction. The two shareholders had said “dues of Grand View are highly inflated” and their counsel argued that the test in law for revival of the company is the resumption of the business earlier carried on, and not setting up of an institution, as proposed by Grand View.”
Grand View is also a creditor, the HC noted. They are in all probability, a front to someone with an eye on the Company’s land.