Out-of-court deal ends Murugappa family feud

Priyanka Gawande

- Priyanka Gawande

Three years after Valli Arunachalam, a New York-based nuclear scientist and daughter of former Murugappa Group chairman M.V. Murugappan, levelled gender discrimination allegations against the boards of the group’s firms, the estranged family members reached an out-of-court settlement, the terms of which remained undisclosed.

After Murugappan’s demise in 2017, a bitter dispute erupted among family members of the group’s promoters as Murugappan had named only his wife and daughters in his will, and Arunachalam demanded a non-executive board berth in the group’s holding firm Ambadi Investments Ltd as natural succession to her father’s board position.

Even though Arunachalam, after her father’s death, was informally assured by family members of the board position, when it came to a formal approval, Ambadi Investments, controlled by the family members, rejected her appointment on the board by passing a 91% vote against the proposal in an annual general meeting.

Upset with the allegedly misogynistic nature of the shareholders, Arunachalam sent a legal notice to Murugappa Group in October 2020, dragging them to the company law tribunal and stating that the male members of her family “cannot tolerate women in their boardrooms".

The withdrawal of the lawsuits following the settlement may potentially usher in an era of stability for the diversified group.