Tata-Mistry spat: SC to hear Mistry review petitions on Wednesday

The Mistry family has challenged apex court's March 2021 decision which agreed with Tata Sons board to remove Cyrus Mistry as chairman

The stage is set for the final round of legal battle between the Tata group and the billionaire Mistry family with the Supreme Court hearing the review petitions filed by the Mistry family on Wednesday. The Mistry family has challenged the apex court’s decision in March 2021 which agreed with Tata Sons board to remove Cyrus Mistry as chairman in October 2016.

The SC will also hear a petition by Mistry which seeks to remove certain adverse remarks against him in the top court’s order.  

Lawyer said a lot was at stake for both parties especially at a time when the Mistry family was trying to raise funds by pledging part of its 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons Private, the holding company of the Tata group. Tata Sons became a private entity which made it difficult for Mistry to sell or pledge shares to outsiders without an approval from the Tatas. The Tata trusts own 66 per cent stake in the holding company.  “Substantial questions of law would have been raised by the Mistry family in the petition on which review is sought on the ground that if the review is not allowed, then there would be miscarriage of justice,” said Nirav Shah, Partner, DSK Legal, a legal firm.

At the same time, lawyers said the Tata group would not like any adverse order at this juncture -- especially after they won the four year long legal battle which had settled the fight between the Mistrys and Tatas. “There is a lot of stake here as the Tata Sons own billions of dollars of wealth with their stakes in various Tata  group companies,” said a senior lawyer asking not to be quoted. "The massive share price rise in the last five years of all Tata Group firms has helped the Mistrys to add several billions of dollars to their wealth," he said.

The SC in its last year’s order did not go into the provisions of Article 75 of the Articles of Association of Tata Sons Pvt which said the company may at any time by a Special Resolution resolve that any holder of ordinary shares to transfer their shares.

The SC had said the valuation of the shares of SP Group depends upon the value of the stake of Tata Sons in listed equities, unlisted equities, immovable assets etc. "We will leave it to the parties to take the Article 75 route or any other legally available route in this regard,” the court had said.