Tata vs Mistry: Why fresh legal battle lines are sure to be drawn now

The Mistry camp seems re-invigorated by its recent victory and appears charged up to impose their renewed legal strategy on their corporate opponents.

The 99th Annual General Meeting of Tata Sons Ltd, held a few days ago, was significant for many reasons. Majority shareholders approved the proposal to give preference shareholders voting rights in case the company defaults on dividend payments for two years. The majority also approved to amend the company’s Articles of Association (Articles) to undertake what its annual report terms “certain corporate governance norms”. Shareholders also approved to amend its Memorandum of Association to change the name from Tata Sons Limited (Tata) to Tata Sons Private Limited following its conversion into a private limited company.

At first glance, these changes