Tata-Mistry Case: Supreme Court To Hear Matter On Dec. 8

The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear on Dec.8 the cross-appeals filed by Tata Sons and Cyrus Investments against appellate tribunal’s order which had restored Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the over $100 billion salt-to-software Tata conglomerate.

The matter came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde which orally said, it will hear this case on Tuesday as the only matter.

List these matters on Dec. 8 for hearing, said the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

The top court had on Sept. 22 restrained Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Cyrus Mistry as also his investment firm from pledging or transferring their shares of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd.

SP Group, which owns 18.37% in Tata Sons, has said the Tatas moved the top court to block its plan to pledge shares for raising funds and that reeked of vindictiveness and oppression of minority shareholder rights.

On Sept. 5, Tata Sons had moved the top court seeking to restrain the Mistry group from raising capital against their shares. It sought to prevent SP Group from creating any direct or indirect pledge of shares.

The SP Group shareholding in the country's largest business house is valued at over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Tata Sons had earlier told the top court that it was not a 'two-group company' and there was no 'quasi-partnership' between it and Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd.

Tata Sons had made the averments in an affidavit filed in the apex court while responding to the cross-appeal filed by Cyrus Investments seeking removal of alleged anomalies in the NCLAT order for getting representation on the Tata Sons's board in proportion to the stakes held by his family.

The apex court had on Jan. 10 granted relief to Tata group by staying the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal order of Dec. 18 last year by which Mistry was restored as the executive chairman of the conglomerate.

Mistry had succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman of Tata Sons in 2012 but was ousted four years later.

The top court had also observed there were "lacunae" in the orders passed by the tribunal.

Then, on May 29, it had issued notice to Tata Sons and others on a cross-appeal filed by Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd.

Mistry had also filed an affidavit to the apex court saying the Tata Group had an adjusted net loss of Rs 13,000 crore in 2019 -- the worst losses in three decades.

In his reply to the Tatas' petition challenging his reinstatement by the NCLAT last December, Mistry had also demanded that group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata should reimburse all the expenses to Tata Sons since his departure in December 2012 in keeping with best global governance standards.

Mistry is seeking representation in the company in proportion to the 18.37% stake held by his family, the cross-appeal has said.

In its affidavit filed in the top court, Tata Sons has alleged that the thrust of Cyrus Investments' focus has now shifted to propagating the quasi-partnership theory to secure the relief of 'proportionate representation'.

According to the petition, the Mistry group firm has sought remedies for many anomalies in the NCLAT order, including not looking at alleged oppression of minority shareholders as well as converting Tata Sons into a private limited company as a post-facto move.

As per the petition, the tribunal order clearly and unequivocally found the prejudicial conduct by Tata Sons, but failed to provide certain important reliefs that would have put an end to the oppressive conduct of the majority shareholder.

Reinstating Mistry as the chairman, NCLAT had also termed the action of the Registrar of Companies to allow conversion of Tata Sons into a private limited company illegal.