"The same Corporate Governance Guidelines, Mr. Mistry's office is referring to, prescribes that a Tata employee must step down from the Boards of Tata companies, after he ceases to be a Tata employee.
"After being replaced as Chairman of Tata Sons, Mr Mistry ceases to be a Tata employee. It is he who is violating the Guidelines that he himself propounded, and not Tata," a Tata Sons spokesperson said.
The response was to Mistry's office issuing a statement saying the ousted chairman was fighting to protect the conglomerate from "capricious" decision-making by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata.
Reacting to the Tata Sons' statement, a source close to Mistry said: "First failure of governance is the failure of Mr Tata to follow the articles, formation of a committee to remove the chairman."
He hasn't ceased to be a Tata employee, the source added.