Tatas win corporate India's most bitter boardroom battle

In a major victory for the Tata Group, the Supreme Court on Friday set aside the NCLAT order restoring Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the conglomerate.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said it is allowing the appeals filed by Tata Group.

"The order of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dated December 18, 2019 is set aside," the bench said.

The court said, "All the questions of law are liable to be answered in favour of the appellants Tata Group and the appeals filed by the Tata Group are liable to be allowed and those by Shapoorji Pallonji Group are liable to be dismissed."

On December 17 last year, Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group had told the top court that removal of Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons in a board meeting held in October 2016 was akin to a “blood sport” and “ambush” and was in complete violation of principles of corporate governance and pervasive violation of Articles of Association in the process.

The Tata Group had vehemently opposed the allegations and said there was no wrongdoing and the board was well within its right to remove Mistry as the chairman.

The apex court had on January 10 last year granted relief to the Tata group by staying the NCLAT order by which Mistry was restored as the executive chairman of the conglomerate.

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

Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters