[BREAKING] Supreme Court to pronounce Judgment tomorrow in Tata Sons v. Cyrus Mistry dispute

The Supreme Court of India will pronounce its judgment tomorrow in the dispute between Tata Group’s holding company, Tata Sons Limited and Shapoorji Pallonji Groups’ Cyrus Mistry.The judgment will be pronounced at 11 am by a Bench of CJI SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian..The Supreme Court had reserved its judgment in the matter on December 17, 2020. .Both Tata Sons and Mistry have challenged a December 18, 2019 order of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which had ordered 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. Subsequently, at an Extraordinary General Meeting convened on February 6, 2017, the shareholders voted for the removal of Mistry from the board of Tata Sons. Subsequently, N Chandrasekaran took over as Executive Chairman of Tata Sons.Two Shapoorji Pallonji firms, who are the shareholders in Tata Sons, moved National Company Law Tribunal over Mistry’s removal and alleging “oppression” of minority shareholders and “mismanagement”.In July 2018, NCLT dismissed the petition in July 2018 against which appeal was filed by Pallonji firms before the NCLAT. The NCLAT proceeded to overturn the NCLT order prompting the current appeals before the Supreme Court..NCLAT expunges disparaging remarks against Cyrus Mistry from NCLT order, reinstates him as Executive Chairman of Tata Sons.Tata Sons claimed in its petition that the NCLAT granted reliefs which were not prayed for by restoring Cyrus Mistry to his “original position” as the Executive Chairman of Tata Sons and declaring the appointment of Chandrasekaran the incumbent Executive Chairman of Tata Sons as illegal.The plea highlighted that the tenure of Cyrus Mistry as the Chairman and Director of Tata Sons expired in March 2017 and a direction by the NCLAT to allow Mistry to continue as a functionary beyond the term would be contrary to the articles of association of the company and the established principles of company law..Breaking: Supreme Court stays NCLAT order reinstating Cyrus Mistry as the Chairman of Tata sons.Shapoorji Pallonji firms in their cross appeals contended that the NCLAT failed to give certain crucial reliefs to MistryIt was prayed that the Mistry firms should be entitled to representation in all committees formed by the board of directors of Tata Sons.Further, they also sought striking down of placing the right of affirmative vote in the hands of select directors of Tata Sons which would enable them to override the view of the entire board..To read more on the hearing on Day 1, click here. To read an account of Day 2, click here. For the Day 3 hearing, click here and for Day 4, click here. To read an account of Day 5, click here and for Day 6, click here. To read an account of Day 7, click here.