Cyrus Mistry Vs Tata Sons: A Fight To The Finish?

Cyrus Mistry loses his lawsuit in the National Company Law Tribunal against Tata Sons, but this corporate slugfest is not yet over

- M.G. Arun

For the past 18 months since his ouster as chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus Mistry, 51, had been working incessantly with his lawyers as he took on the might of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Rs 6.8 lakh crore Tata Group. Working from his office in SP House, headquarters of the Rs 28,000 crore Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group, Mistry was building his case at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a quasi-judicial body that decides on issues relating to Indian companies. He was arguing that the SP Group, the single largest shareholder in Tata Sons with 18.4 per cent ownership, be given board representation proportionate to its holdings; that the ‘oppressive’ clauses in the articles of association of Tata Sons that were being ‘misused’ to exert control over the firm by Tata Trusts, which collectively holds over 66 per cent in Tata Sons, be removed; and the September 2017 decision to make Tata Sons private be reversed as it allegedly endangered the interests of the minority shareholders.