In a major win for the Tata Group, the Supreme Court on Friday set aside the NCLAT order restoring Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the conglomerate. A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said it is allowing the appeals filed by Tata Group. Ratan Tata was quick to respond to the verdict, hailing the judiciary for their work.
"All the questions of law are liable to be answered in favour of the appellants Tata Group and the appeals filed by the Tata Group are liable to be allowed and those by Shapoorji Pallonji Group are liable to be dismissed," the court decreed on Friday.
Taking to Twitter with a statement, Ratan Tata said that he appreciated and was "grateful" for the Supreme Court's judgement. As he put it, the verdict reinforces the "fairness and justice displayed by our judiciary".
"It is not an issue of winning or losing. After relentless attacks on my integrity and the ethical conduct of the group, the judgement upholding all the appeals of Tata Sons is a validation of the values and ethics that have always been the guiding principles of the group," he contended.
Mistry had succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman of the Tata Sons in 2012 but was ousted four years later alleging non-performance. At the time, Ratan Tata had been named as an interim Chairman of the group. In December 2016, two Mistry family backed investment firms had moved NCLT Mumbai, alleging oppression of minority shareholders and mismanagement by Tata Sons and challenging Mistry's removal.
Since then, there have been several twists and turns to the tale from the NCLAT restoring Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons, but suspended the implementation to the Supreme Court staying the decision.
Now, with today's order, the NCLAT order has been set aside. At the same time, the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group's appeal has been dismissed along with the appeal of Cyrus Investments.
