Ownership of Darjeeling’s legacy hotel Windamere comes under legal scrutiny

The development, according to tourism industry stakeholders, has cast a shadow of uncertainty on the future of the heritage property

Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling.: File picture

Vivek Chhetri   |   TT  |  Darjeeling   |  31.08.21: Windamere Hotel, considered one of the best colonial accommodations in the country and a landmark in Darjeeling, is caught in an ownership struggle which, tourism industry stakeholders say, has cast a shadow of uncertainty on the future of the heritage property.

Sources told The Telegraph that Tenki Tenduf-La Davis, sister of Sherab Tenduf-La, who had been the managing director of the hotel until his demise in February 2015, approached the National Company Law Tribunal, Calcutta, on the ownership issue.

Sherab died in Canada.

“The Tenduf-la family has approached the tribunal seeking to be recognised as the rightful majority shareholders of the company owning the hotel,” said a source.

Elizabeth Jane Clarke is currently the “managing director” of the hotel. Clarke doesn’t belong to the Tenduf-La family, which according to the source, is “claiming” that she is a minority stakeholder. The petitioner has also “apprehensions” regarding the present management dealing with the assets of the hotel.

The Telegraph reached out to the Tenduf-La family in the United States as well as a director of Windamere Hotel Limited in Darjeeling. But both the sides refused to comment citing legal constraints.

However, both the parties did not deny that a case was being heard at the NCLT and a hearing might take place on September 7.

The Tenduf-La family had been associated with the Windamere Hotel from the late 1930s till Sherab’s death in 2015. The iconic 38-room hotel had announced a lockout from July 5 this year, citing pandemic-induced financial stress. The management, however, changed its decision a few days before the lockout was to come into effect following a meeting at the additional labour commissioner’s office in Siliguri.

At the meeting, various conditions on wage payment to 50-odd staff members were agreed upon.

Windamere Hotel is an attraction by itself carrying Darjeeling’s rich history and is also an important component of the tourism sector in the region. “Good hotels are needed to promote tourism.… We hope the dispute will be resolved,” said a travel agent.

The place started as a cosy boarding house for bachelor English and Scottish tea planters — first building was built around the 1880s — was converted into a hotel just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

A glance through the names of the 38 rooms at the hotel provides an insight into its rich history. Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark had stayed at the hotel and a room at the main building is named after him.

Another room is called the Princess of Siam (as Thailand was previously known) as she had stayed there. Another room is named Chogyal of Sikkim and it was at this hotel that the former king of Sikkim had met his second wife Hope Cooke.

The hotel is also famous for its “Christmas Week at Windamere” from December 18 to January 1, which is being celebrated in the same way since 1939.

Performers from London’s West End Theatre District had also taken part in this event. In fact, the millennium Christmas of 1999 drew guests from 15 countries, including Brazil, Britain, USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Thailand, Japan and China.

(https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/ownership-of-darjeelings-legacy-hotel-windamere-comes-under-legal-scrutiny/cid/1828686)