Tata Sons Writes to Supreme Court Against Decision on Cyrus Mistry

Tata Sons Private Limited (TSPL) is likely to mention in the Supreme Court its petition challenging the NCLAT decision restoring Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the group and saying the verdict "undermined corporate democracy" and the "rights" of its board of directors.

A lawyer associated with the matter said the petition would be mentioned for urgent hearing. The petition is likely to be mentioned by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was the lead counsel for the Tata Group in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

TSPL, formerly known as Tata Sons Limited, in its petition, has sought "setting aside of the impugned judgment in toto" of NCLAT, alleging it was "completely inconsistent with the annals of corporate law" and reflected "non-appreciation of facts", which was "untenable in law".

The NCLAT, in a big relief to Mistry and Cyrus Investment Pvt Ltd, on December 18 restored him as the executive chairman of TSPL and ruled that the appointment of N Chandrasekaran as the head of the holding company of the USD 110-billion salt-to-software conglomerate was illegal.

It held the group's chairman emeritus Ratan Tata's actions against Mistry were oppressive and the appointment of a new chairman was illegal.

It, however, stayed the operation of its order with respect to Mistry's reinstatement for four weeks to allow TSPL to file an appeal in the top court.