Tatas, TCS violated rules in sacking Mistry: RTI

The abrupt sacking of Cyrus Mistry as the chairman and director, respectively, of Tata Sons and its crown jewel TCS violated provisions of the Companies Act, RBI rules and more importantly, Tatas' own articles of association, RoC, Mumbai said in an RTI reply.

The right to information (RTI) reply, given by Uday Khomane, the assistant registrar of companies (RoC), Mumbai on October 3, is in response to a RTI request filed by the investment arms of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group on August 31.

The reply said the way Mistry was removed from the chairmanship of Tats Sons and also as the director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), violated the relevant legal provisions under the Companies Act, 2013; the Reserve Bank rules governing NBFCs; and more importantly the rule 118 of the articles of association (AoA) of Tata Sons, the parent of the diversified Tata group, which is registered as an NBFC with the monetary authority.

A Tata Sons spokesman refused to offer detailed comments on the questions, saying, "We do not wish to comment on the matter as the matter is sub-judice."

The report offers an internal view of the RoC, which interestingly is totally opposite of the view taken by the NCLT, Mumbai earlier this year while dismissing the petition filed by Mistry challenging his dismissal from the group.

In a boardroom coup, Mistry was sacked as the chairman of Tata Sons on October 24, 2016, two months short of four years in the corner room of the Bombay House, the global headquarters of the 150-old conglomerate that nets over 65 per cent of its income from outside the country. Mistry was nudged to take over the reins of the $103-billion group as the second nonTata chairman, after Nowroji Saklatwala(193438), in December 2012, after group patriarch Ratan Tata retired.