NCLT orders transfer of Windamere’s 92% shares

Windamere Hotel Limited did not record shares in Tenki’s favour on grounds that Tenduf-La had purportedly left behind will dated February 8, 2015

Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling

Vivek Chhetri   |   TT  |  Darjeeling   |  14.03.23  : The Calcutta bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ordered Windamere Hotel Limited to register 92 per cent of the company’s shares in favour of Tenki Tenduf-La Davis whose family has been associated with the property since the 1930s. 

Windamere Hotel, considered one of the best colonial accommodations in the country and a landmark in Darjeeling, was embroiled in the ownership fight for two years following the death of Sherab Wangfel Tenduf-La, who had been the managing director of the hotel until his demise on February 19, 2015, in Canada.

Sherab was holding 92 per cent shares of the company that runs the hotel.

Sources said Sherab had no children. Tenki, the sister of Sherab and the only surviving sibling, wanted the shares to be registered in her name.

The Windamere Hotel Limited did not record the shares in Tenki’s favour on the grounds that Tenduf-La had purportedly left behind a will dated February 8, 2015, and a probate of the will or succession certificate was needed before the shares could be registered, said a source.

“Tenki then approached the NCLT in 2020 against Windamere Hotel Limited and Elizabeth Jane Clarke,” said a source.

Clarke is the current managing director of Windamere and is a resident of Toronto, Canada, and holds around 8 per cent of the company shares.

“The NCLT has directed the respondents (Windamere Hotel Limited and Elizabeth J Clarke) to register forthwith the transmission of 9,190 (92 per cent) shares standing in the name of Sherab Wangfel TendufLa in his sister Tenki’s name,” said a source.

The spokesperson for the Tenduf-La family refused to comment on the NCLT verdict immediately. Tenki currently resides in California, United States.

Clarke, too, could not be immediately contacted. A director of the company said she “is out of the station and her phone doesn’t work there”. The director also added that Clarke would probably be in Darjeeling next month.

Legal experts said the Calcutta NCLT’s February 20 order could be challenged at a higher forum.

The development has been keenly followed by the stakeholders of the tourism industry in the region as Windamere Hotel is an attraction by itself carrying Darjeeling’s rich history.  “Good hotels are needed to promote tourism. Windamere is a well-known brand in this region,” said a tourism stakeholder.

The Tenduf-La family had been associated with the Windamere Hotel, which has 38 rooms, since the 1930s.

The place started as a cosy boarding house for bachelor English and Scottish tea planters — the 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.