Judgment reserved by the Supreme Court in Tata- Mistry Case

Judgment reserved by the Supreme Court in Tata- Mistry Case

The Supreme Court of India reserved its judgment in Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. and Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd. against the order of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCALT)

Cyrus Mistry was appointed as a Chairman at Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. (Tatas) in 2012. However, he was ousted after four years, on 24 October 2016. A claim was made against the Tatas before the NCLAT that there was a breach of Articles of Association and the provisions of the Companies Act were not followed while removing Cyrus Mistry as the Chairman of Tata Sons in October 2016.

The allegations were denied by Tatas and they claimed that there was no wrongdoing on their part and they had absolute rights to remove Mistry from the post of Chairman.

Tatas through an affidavit made averments before the Supreme Court (SC) wherein it replied to the cross-appeal filed by Mr Mistry for seeking removal of anomalies present in the order of NCLAT that directed for getting representation on Tata board in proportion to the stakes held by his family.

Tatas challenged the order dated 18 December 2019 of NCALT wherein it had ordered the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as the Chairperson of Tatas and held that his removal from the Board was illegal. They also demanded Mr Mistry should be ordered to reimburse all the expenses to Tata since his departure.

The matter was heard through a video-conferencing by the SC on 10 January 2020, whereby it granted relief to Tatas by staying the order of NCALT. The matter is being heard by a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde.

SC had given the directions to Tatas that they should not take any decision in advance which requires a majority decision of the Board of Directors of Tatas or a majority in the Annual General Meeting.

It has reserved its order on this matter.