Tata Sons moves SC against Cyrus Mistry's reappointment as Executive Chairman

Tata Sons Limited on Thursday approached the Supreme Court over the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's (NCLAT) December 18 verdict that reinstated Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of the company.

The company has sought early interim relief ahead of the board meeting which is likely to be held on January 9.

The matter has not yet been fixed for hearing and will only come up after the apex court opens on January 6 after the winter break.

In its verdict the NCLAT had restored Cyrus Mistry as the Executive Chairman of the Tata Group and held that the appointment of N Chandrasekaran was illegal.

The tribunal, however, clarified the restoration order will be operational only after four weeks, thus allotting time for the Tatas to file an appeal.

The Mumbai bench of the NCLT had dismissed the petitions filed by the two investment firms - Cyrus Investments Private Ltd and Sterling Investments Corporation - challenging Mistry's removal.

Later, Mistry had also personally approached the NCLAT over the NCLT order.

In December 2016, Tata Sons had called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Mistry from its board.

Later, in the beginning of February 2017, the ousted Chairman was removed as a director of the company with shareholders voting in favour of his removal with “requisite majority”.

The Mistry camp had challenged the July 9 order of the Mumbai bench of the NCLT which dismissed the pleas against his removal as Tata Sons chairman, as also the allegations of rampant misconduct on part of Ratan Tata and the company's board.

Mistry in his pleas primarily argued that his removal was not in accordance with the Companies Act and that there was rampant mismanagement of affairs across Tata Sons.

The recent NCLAT verdict hadn't just ordered for the reinstatement of Mistry as Chairman of Tata Sons.

According to a Bloomberg Quint report, the Tribunal had also held that Mistry's removal from other Tata firms was illegal. The NCLAT termed Ratan Tata's actions against Mistry as being oppressive and ordered that Mistry should be restored to his positions.

The Tribunal also overruled Tata Sons' change to a private company as being illegal and ordered that it should be reinstated as a public company.