The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)’s order to reinstate Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata Sons. The development comes roughly a week after Tata Sons approached the Supreme Court challenging the restoration of Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the group by the company law tribunal in December.
Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde observed that the tribunal’s decision to restore Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons may be an “adjudication error” which permeates the whole order.
According to the tribunal’s December 18 order, Mr Cyrus Mistry was restored at the top helm of Tata Sons – one of the country’s oldest and largest conglomerates – three years after his dramatic sacking at a board meeting.
The NCLAT had also ruled that the appointment of N Chandrasekaran as head of the holding company of the $110-billion salt-to-software conglomerate was illegal.
Tata Sons board removed Mistry as chairman and appointed Ratan Tata as interim chairman in October 2016. The change in the top management came about four years after he had taken over from Mr Tata.
In December 2016, Mr Mistry resigned as director from all Tata Sons companies and moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) alleging oppression of minority shareholders and mismanagement. In January 2017, Tata Sons named N Chandrashekaran as chairman.
In the next month, Mr Mistry was removed from the post of director on the Tata Sons board. Mr Chandrasekaran was the first non-Parsi to be appointed as chairman of Tata Sons.
Mr Mistry currently serves as managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company, which is part of the Shapoorji Pallonji group owned by his family. He joined the board of Tata Sons in 2006 and was appointed deputy chairman in November 2011.
Source: NDTV Profit
