Mistry vs Tata: Taking It To The New Level

Adding a fresh twist to the nearly two-month-old battle with Tata Sons Ltd, Cyrus P. Mistry, on December 19, announced his decision to not contest the forthcoming extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) and instead step down from the board of all the operating companies where he is a director.

- Ravi Krishnan

In his first media interaction since the boardroom putsch that forced him to exit, Mistry said he is shifting gears and taking the fight with Tata Sons to a bigger platform, hinting at legal challenges to come.

Here are some edited excerpts from the media interaction. 

What prompted this decision to step down?

I think the reason for the decision is wedded in the history of the Pallonji family, which has always supported the Tata group. What I have seen in the last eight weeks is a significant coercive behaviour from Tata Sons with employees and other stakeholders and, as you see in their EGM notice, a threatening attitude, creating a situation of tremendous unease.

My belief is that from here, the platform has to change to the legal side to ensure we protect the share-holders. The output is still the same—what we are ensuring is governance reform and ensuring the ethical values of the founder.. I will continue to pursue that very vigorously. What we have seen in the last eight weeks as far as the EGMs are concerned—the process has shown a lack of governance, which I have detailed out. It has thrown up many ethical issues that have come to the fore. What we also saw in the last eight weeks is a huge amount of uncertainty, which I wanted to put to bed. 

What was the trigger for the move to step down?