[Exclusive]: Mistry v Tatas?: Tata Sons tries to hide behind John Doe in Delhi High Court

Just when it looked like the corporate battle between Cyrus Mistry and Ratan Tata would not hit the courts, it turns out that Tata Sons approached the Delhi High Court via a “John Doe” petition..A civil suit titled Tata Sons & Ors v John Doe(s) & Ors, and five interim applications, were listed before Justice RS Endlaw yesterday. By not naming Mistry (or any of his companies) as respondents, Tata Sons would have managed to evade the caveat(s) filed, which may also explain why only senior counsel Sudhir Chandra appeared for Tata Sons today. The company was represented by Anand and Anand..“John Doe” orders or “John Doe” injunctions are “cease and desist” orders passed by a court of law against anonymous entity/entities. The principle is that the person who is a threat is not known as they are veiled being many in number backed by unknown identities..As per our sources, one of the prayers made was a permanent injunction restraining the “defendants….and all others acting for and on their behalf” from making any “defamatory, libellous and disparaging material” by any media with respect to the plaintiffs in any manner whatsoever..In the course of yesterday’s arguments, Chandra was asked how such a relief could be granted, and whether this was an attempt to simply silence criticism of any kind..In the end, we understand that Chandra agreed to not press for this particular relief. However, Tata Sons had to restrict their complaint against specific individuals. .The lawyers involved were not available for comment at time of publication of this piece..Order awaited.