Tata Sons’ final attempt to oust Cyrus Mistry; calls shareholders' meet

Tata Sons has called an extraordinary general meeting to oust Cyrus Mistry as director on February 9.

New Delhi, Jan 6: After ousting him as the Chairman, Tata Sons has called a shareholders' meeting on February 6 to remove Cyrus Mistry as director of the holding company of the USD 103-billion Tata Group.

Tata Sons had abruptly removed Mistry as its Chairman on October 24 last year and sought his ouster from operating companies like Tata Motors and TCS. Mistry subsequently resigned from the board of six companies, but dragged Tata Sons and his interim successor Ratan Tata to the National Company Law Tribunal.

After the board meeting of October 24, 2016, Tata Sons had resolved that Mistry shall, notwithstanding his ceasing to be the Chairman, continue as a director of the company.

"Subsequent to his replacement, Mistry has made certain unsubstantiated allegations, which cast aspersions not only on Tata Sons Limited and its board of directors, but also on the Tata group as a whole. Internal communications, including confidential, were made public. Mistry's conduct has caused enormous harm to the Tata group and its stakeholders, including employees and shareholders," Tata Sons said in a note for extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

The ousted chairman's conduct, it said, "resulted in significant erosion of the market value of the Tata group companies, which has consequently resulted in harm to Tata Sons Limited and indirectly losses to its shareholders".

The notice said continuation of Mistry as a Director of Tata Sons is "untenable" and therefore, he should be removed. The resolution, which has been moved for his removal, said: "The board of Tata Sons Ltd is of the view that the integrity of the board proceedings is being jeopardised by Mistry's continuation as a Director and the confidentiality of the board decisions and proceedings cannot be ensured as the documents presented to the board have been leaked and made public in a distorted and untruthful manner."

PTI