Ratan Tata's legacy threatened as tribunal overturns Cyrus Mistry's ouster

The NCLAT ruling leaves the Tata group rudderless as it faces a string of urgent decisions.

For more than 150 years, the Tata Group has been synonymous with India’s nation-building project, venturing into everything from autos to airlines when its country needed them. And no executive better personified the country’s emergence on the world stage than Ratan Tata, whose string of dazzling takeovers took a largely domestic firm global.

Now at 81, Tata’s legacy is under threat. An internecine war over the conglomerate’s future took a crippling turn Wednesday, highlighting that even the famed Tatas aren’t immune to the corporate governance troubles that often plague the family businesses that still dominate India’s economy.
 

In a surprise ruling,