Tata-Mistry Case: A Bittersweet Victory for The Tata Group
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Tata Sons board in October 2016 to remove its then chairman, Cyrus Mistry, from office and later the company’s board The Court Bench, rejected Mistry’s plea against the conversion of Tata Sons from a public limited company into a private limited one and did not get into the issue of valuing the company’s stake. It said Article 75 of Articles of Association of Tata Sons was nothing but a provision for an exit option to shareholders and after attacking Article 75 before the NCLT, Mistry Group could not ask it to go into the question of fixing fair value compensation for exercising an exit option.
The Mistry family had objected to Tata Sons going private. This, according to it, reduced liquidity in Tata Sons shares.
Tata Trusts, which owns 66 per cent in Tata Sons, is chaired by Ratan Tata, who is 83 and patriarch of the group.
Mistry, 52, who was handpicked to lead Tata Group after a global hunt, took over as chairman in 2012 after Tata retired on turning 75.
