SC dismisses plea to review removal of Cyrus Mistry as Tata Sons head

The genesis of the dispute can be traced to the removal of Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons in 2016

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petitions filed by former Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry against its own judgment last year which had upheld the group’s decision to remove him as group chairman.

With this, the six-year legal battle between the Mistry family and the Tatas comes to an end.

In a partial relief to Mistry, the Bench, led by Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana agreed to expunge certain adverse remarks made against Mistry in the earlier judgment.

The top court also directed Mistry to withdraw or delete certain offensive paragraphs directed against the court made in Mistry's earlier application.

Reacting to the judgment by the apex court, former Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata said: "We would like to express our grateful appreciation of the judgment passed and upheld by the Supreme Court today. It reinforces the value systems and ethics of our judiciary.”

Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, welcomed the Supreme Court order with "humility". "It reaffirms, once again, Tata Group’s position which was upheld by a unanimous judgment last year. Tata Sons reiterates its commitment to work towards nation building, and maintaining standards of governance and ethical conduct that have guided Tata Group in all its businesses over the years," the statement said.

The dispute between two of the oldest business families in the country started when the Tata Sons board removed Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons in 2016. The investment companies of the Mistry family — Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments — which own 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, moved the Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), alleging oppression and mismanagement of Tata Sons by Tata Trusts and Ratan Tata. The Tata Trusts own 66 per cent in Tata Sons while the rest is owned by Tata group companies and few small shareholders. However, the NCLT ruled against Mistry and dismissed the petitions filed against the Tatas.

Later, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) overturned the decision of the NCLT and asked the Tata Sons board to reinstate Mistry. Tata Sons then moved the Supreme Court to appeal against the NCLAT order. The top court allowed the appeal filed by Tata Sons on 26 March last year and agreed with Tata Sons board to remove Mistry.

The review petition, which was filed by the Mistry firms on 24 April, 2021, came up on Thursday in open court and was dismissed, according to a statement by Karanjawala & Co, a law firm appearing for the Tata group.