NCLT dismisses contempt of court petition by Mistry firms
MUMBAI: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday dismissed a contempt of court petition filed by the Mistry family firms against Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of the Tata Group.
The tribunal observed that Tata Sons’ action didn’t amount to contempt of court and asked the Mistry family firms to file an affidavit in support of an earlier petition they had filed alleging mismanagement and oppression by Tata Sons.
The first petition’s hearing is scheduled for January 31 and comes ahead of the February 6 date decided by Tata Sons to hold a shareholders’ meeting to oust Mistry from its board.
The tribunal told the Mistry family firms to address their concerns about the Tata Sons shareholder meeting and club it with the first petition.
The contempt petition, filed by Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investments Pvt Ltd, sought to restrain Tata Sons from going ahead with a February 6 extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to eject Mistry, who was ousted as chairman of the group holding company on October 24.
On January 12, Tata Sons named Tata Consultancy Services CEO N Chandrasekaran as its new chairman.
The contempt petition had claimed that Tata Sons calling the EGM violates the undertaking given by its lawyers when the NCLT heard an earlier petition filed by the investment firms on December 22.
The two Mistry family firms had approached the company law tribunal against Tata Sons and Tata trustees on December 20, alleging mismanagement and oppression of minority shareholders.