NCLT dismisses Cyrus Mistry’s plea against removal as Tata Sons chairman

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) today dismissed the pleas of Cyrus Mistry challenging his removal as Chairman of Tata Sons. Mistry was removed as the Tata Sons board and majority of its members lost confidence in him, the NCLT Mumbai’s main bench of B S V Prakash Kumar and V Nallasenapathy said in a judgement.
The tribunal said it was not accepting Mistry’s contentions that his removal was due to the result of mismanagement by the board and oppression of minority shareholders of the group. Mistry was removed because the board and majority of its members lost confidence in him after he sent out certain crucial information about the company to the I-T department, leaked details to the media and came out openly in public against the company’s shareholders and its board, the bench said.
In October 2016, Mistry was ousted as Tata Sons Chairman. Two months later, he and his family-run investment firm, Cyrus Investments, approached the NCLT as minority shareholders against the corporate monolith and others, including Ratan Tata, alleging oppression and mismanagement. As per the plea, five months later he was also removed from the post of director of Tata Sons’ board for approaching the NCLT. Mistry can appeal against this order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.