Supreme Court sets aside NCLAT order reinstating Cyrus Mistry as Tata Sons chairman

NEW DELHI: In a major development, the Supreme Court on Friday (March 26, 2021) set aside the December 2019 ruling of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that had directed the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as Tata Sons chairperson.

The top court also set aside the appointment of N Chandra as executive chairperson.

The order was passed by the apex court bench of Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. The bench allowed the appeal filed by Tata Sons against the NCLAT judgement and dismissed the appeals filed by Mistry and Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group).

"We find all the questions of law are liable to be answered in favour of the appellants, Tata Group and the appeals file by the Tata Group are liable to be allowed and Shapoorji Pallonji group is liable to be dismissed," the top court said.

The order of NCLAT dated December 18, 2019 is set aside, the Supreme Court added. Both Tata Sons and Mistry had challenged the December 18, 2019 order of the NCLAT which had ordered the reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as the Chairperson of Tata Sons Limited.

The Supreme court had on January 10, 2020, stayed the NCLAT order.

The NCLAT, in its December 2019 judgment, had held that the proceedings of the Board meeting of Tata Sons held on October 24, 2016 removing Cyrus Mistry as Chairperson was illegal. It had also directed that Ratan Tata should not take any decision in advance which requires majority decision of the Board of Directors of Tata Sons or a majority in the Annual General Meeting.

Mistry took over as Chairman of Tata Sons, in December 2012 and was removed from the post on October 24, 2016 by the majority of the board of directors of the company.