SC agrees to hear Mistry’s plea for representation on Tata Sons’ Board

NEW DELHI: In what may come as a big win for Tata Son’s ex-chairman Cyrus Mistry, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear his plea seeking proportionate representation for his family (Shapoorji Pallonji Group) on the Tata Sons Board of Directors. The latest petition filed by Mistry also challenges Article 121 of the Articles of Association of Tata Sons, which notes that it allows select directors to override the views of the board of directors.

The new plea will be heard along with the appeal of the Tata group, which challenged the NCLAT order of December 2019 which had asked the software-to-automobile conglomerate to reinstate Mistry as chairman. The NCLAT had ruled that Tata Sons’ affairs were carried out in a manner ‘prejudicial and oppressive’ to the Mistry’s group and that his ouster from the Tata Sons Board was ‘illegal’. However, the NCLAT hadn’t offered any judicial protection to the minority shareholder rights of the Mistry family.