NCLAT to hear Mistry pleas on May 4

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal will hear on May 4 maintainability of ousted Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry's petition alleging "mismanagement and oppression of minority" at Tata Sons, along with waiver of shareholding requirement rules.

During the hearing today, the counsel representing the Mistry camp informed the NCLAT that they will file another appeal against the order of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) rejecting their waiver application on April 17. The counsel representing two firms -- Cyrus Investment Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investments Pvt Ltd -- informed that they are in the process of doing so, following which the NCLAT Bench headed by Justice S J Mukhopadhyay adjourned the matter to May 4. "That is under the process. We are filing it in a day or two," submitted senior advocate C A Sundaram appearing on behalf of the Mistry camp. Meanwhile, the bench also said that while deciding the matter, it would also look on the issues as "whether a member of a company would have rights to file a case of oppression and mismanagement if he has not 10 per cent equity shares or fulfil the criteria with the help of preferential shares." It further said: "If none of the member has the required 10 per cent, then who would bring it before us ... If there is no body in the company then whether it is a fit case of waiver or not?""Whether only equity shareholders or preferential shareholders? These are things which we have to decide," said the bench adding that it would help other matters having similar issues also.