Tata vs Mistry: Supreme Court stays NCLAT order restoring Cyrus Mistry as Tata Group chairman

Supreme Court on Friday stayed the NCLAT order restoring Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of Tata group, according to wire and TV reports. The apex court was hearing Tata Sons’ plea challenging the NCLAT order on the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry. A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant heard Tata Sons’ plea challenging the appellate tribunal’s decision and issued notices to Mistry and others. The NCLAT seems to have committed errors in adjudicating and the appellate tribunal seems to lack powers to pass the directions that it has, Chief Justice S A Bobde said. On December 18, 2019, the NCLAT restored Cyrus Mistry and ruled the appointment of N Chandrasekaran as the head of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate was illegal.

Supreme Court also asked Cyrus Mistry and Shapoorji Pallonji group including Sterling Investment and Cyrus Investment to file a reply to the appeal filed by Tata Group in four weeks. “We are stating on record that we don’t want the relief of Cyrus Mistry’s reinstatement as chairman of the Tata Group,” CNBC TV-18 reported citing Cyrus Mistry’s counsel Aryama Sundaram as saying in the Supreme Court.

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Cyrus Mistry was removed as chairman of Tata Sons on October 24, 2016. He was later ousted as a director from the holding company’s board, and then ousted from various operating companies in the Tata group. On August 3 last year, Cyrus Mistry had approached the appellate tribunal challenging the July 9, 2018 order of the Mumbai bench of NCLT which dismissed his petition challenging his ouster as the chairman of the firm. Meanwhile, the shares of Tata group including Tata Motors and Tata Steel jumped after the ruling from the Supreme Court.