According to the latest reports, the Supreme Court Zambia has effectively rejected the appeal from the Ventriglias. Few weeks earlier, the Ventriglias had challenged the decision of the higher Court of Appeal to establish Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. This decision was given by justice Mwinde on 31st January 2019. By giving this decision, justice Mwinde reversed the decision from the earlier court regarding this case, Lusaka High Court. It should be noted here that the judgement from the Lusaka High Court in the Portland Cement Zambia case came more than a decade later and was extremely controversial as decision was given in favour of the Ventriglias despite evidences stating otherwise.
After more than 16 months of the judgement by higher Court of Appeal, the Ventriglias again tried to throttle the legal decision by challenging it at the Supreme Court Zambia. To evaluate this challenge, a bench of three Supreme Court judges were established. After evaluation of the challenge, several details were established. According to law, it is essential that any claim against a previous court decision is made within 14 days of the decision itself. In case of the Lusaka High Court judgement on Portland Cement which was given in the month of May, 2018, Dr. Rajan Mahtani had registered a claim at the higher Court of appeal within two weeks. As such, his appeal was accepted at the higher Court and the decision was given on 31st January 2019. However, in case of the Ventriglias’ appeal to the Supreme Court Zambia, the appeal was made more than 16 months later. This is well beyond the legal precedence. Furthermore, the judges at the Supreme Court also confirmed that the evidences surrounding the appeal from the Ventriglias were dubious with no precedence. As such, the appeal by the Ventriglias regarding Portland Cement decision from higher Court of Appeal was effectively rejected.