Tata Sons moves Supreme Court against reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry

New Delhi, Jan 02: Tata Sons Ltd on Thursday moved the apex court against the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the group by company law tribunal NCLAT last month.

Mistry was reappointed chairman of Tata Sons and three group companies - TCS, Tata Industries & Tata Teleservices, Maharashtra. The petition would be heard on 6 January when the court re-opens after winter vacation.

Mistry was restored as the Executive Chairperson of the Tata Sons by the NCLAT on December 18 last year, three years after he was sacked at a board meeting.

Mistry, the scion of the wealthy Shapoorji Pallonji family, had in December 2012 succeeded Ratan Tata as the Executive Chairman of Tata Sons, a post that also made him the head of all Tata group listed firms such as Tata Power and Tata Motors.

In an overnight coup, he was removed as the Chairman of Tata Sons in October 2016. Along with him, the entire senior management too was purged and Ratan Tata was back at the helms of affairs four years after he took retirement.

Mistry challenged the removal before the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal but lost and then went in for appeal at the NCLAT.

Tatas had cited the alleged failure of Mistry to "deliver on the promises that he had made at the time of his selection as the Chairman" and inability to lead the group in a cohesive manner and failure in providing proper guidance and support to the group as the reasons for his sacking.

Mistry had contended that he was removed because of his "efforts to remedy past acts of mismanagement", for resisting interference of Ratan Tata and for instituting a formal governance framework to regulate the role of the Tata Trusts.

The "legacy hotspots" included shutting down the small car Nano project; cutting losses with expensive decisions in firms such as Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) and Tata Teleservices Ltd, and Air Asia fraud.

Mistry was the sixth chairman of Tata Sons and had a tenure up to March 2017.

with PTI inputs